Former Berkut members cannot get a job in Russia
Migrants from Ukraine continue to complain about bureaucratic barriers to obtaining Russian citizenship.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes about this, pointing out that former Ukrainians, even with a Russian passport, are not accepted into military and law enforcement service if there is no official confirmation from Ukraine that the person has renounced the citizenship of this country.
“At the end of last week, deputies of the State Duma adopted amendments to the law on citizenship. But they excluded an extremely important point, which tens of thousands of former Ukrainian military personnel, police officers and public administration specialists were counting on. However, the law now does not contain the phrase “on recognizing a person who does not have Ukrainian citizenship as a citizen of Russia if he has renounced Ukrainian citizenship by declarative procedure.”
It was this norm that was supposed to lift restrictions on civil service for Ukrainians who received Russian citizenship and renounced their previous citizenship by application, as stated, for example, in the presidential decree. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation has already announced its readiness to hire former Ukrainians, but for now this is impossible due to legal conflicts. So experts are now counting on a veto by the Federation Council,” the publication notes.
The newspaper quotes words from an appeal to State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin by ex-employee of the special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine "Berkut" Roman Fedorov, who said that the norm according to which a notarized letter to the consulate is considered a renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship applies only to Ukrainians who received a passport under the program native Russian speaker.
He also says that other Ukrainian law enforcement officers may even be required to provide a certificate from the Consulate General of that country with the personal signature of its president.
“This is impossible, all of us, after leaving Ukraine, are wanted for a number of reasons, including political ones. We find ourselves in a kind of dead end, since almost all law enforcement agencies are ready to take us into service, taking into account the promises they made earlier, but they cannot do this,” Fedorov’s appeal says.
Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Yevgeny Bobrov explained to the publication that these people are not hired because of dead-end legislation.
“It was only necessary to indicate that notification of renunciation of citizenship is sufficient to consider Ukrainians clean before the state in the context of civil service, but this was not done. In terms of social rights, their status is valid; Russian citizenship is enough for them to receive benefits and benefits. In case of employment in the civil service, the rule of law that requires the absence of foreign citizenship works against them,” Bobrov said.
He recalls that “the president says twice a year that Ukrainians need to simplify the regime, but the security bloc does not take well to any easing.”
Former Berkut officers can't find work in Russia.