Residents of the LDPR will have their state duty waived when obtaining Russian citizenship
A bill has been introduced to the State Duma, according to which residents of the LDPR will be included in the list of persons who do not need to pay a state fee for admission to Russian citizenship.
The corresponding document was published on the website of the State Duma's legislative support system, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The bill is an initiative to expand the list of persons who do not need to pay a state fee for admission to Russian citizenship. The document proposes to include in the list of “persons permanently residing in the territories of certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.”
Please note that at present, for carrying out actions related to admission to citizenship, restoration of citizenship, renunciation of citizenship, consideration of an application to verify the availability of citizenship of the Russian Federation, a state fee of 3500 rubles is paid.
The authors of the initiative are State Duma deputies Andrei Kozenko, Anatoly Aksakov, Ruslan Balbek, Viktor Vodolatsky, Sergei Vostretsov, Alexei Zhuravlev, Konstantin Zatulin, Natalya Poklonskaya, Dmitry Sablin, Kazbek Taisaev, Sergei Shargunov, Alexander Sherin, Pavel Shperov, Alexander Yushchenko, as well as members Federation Council Olga Kovitidi, Sergei Mamedov and Sergei Tsekov.
“The issue of the need to abolish the state duty for residents of the Donbass republics became one of the most discussed during the round table “Results and prospects of the integration processes of Donbass and Russia,” which took place in December 2019 in Donetsk on the initiative of the Russia-Donbass Integration Committee,” reports press service of State Duma deputy Andrei Kozenko.
According to Kozenko, the adoption by Russian President Vladimir Putin of the decision to grant Russian citizenship for humanitarian purposes in a simplified manner for citizens of the LPR and DPR became a turning point and brought the process of integration of the republics of Donbass and Russia to a new level.
“At the same time, taking into account the ratio of the size of the real income of the population of the people’s republics to the size of the state duty collected, I consider the need to pay it excessive,” the deputy emphasized.
“Increasing the level of well-being of residents of Donbass, bringing the amount of payments to the level of average wages and pensions of the regions of the Russian Federation by 2022 is the primary task of the people’s republics, the main direction of their state strategy.
But, despite the measures taken, for many residents of the republics of working age, paying the fee for obtaining a Russian passport is still a heavy burden, and for pensioners and other categories of citizens on social security, it is a completely impossible task,” the authors of the initiative believe.
Also in the explanatory note to the document they emphasized that today the Russian Federation is the only country that protects the rights and freedoms of the residents of Donbass, and since the protection and support of the Russian-speaking population around the world has always been and remains one of the main priorities of Moscow’s foreign policy, the introduction of preferential admission conditions Russian citizenship for citizens of the LDPR will be a continuation of this strategy.
It is noted that the government has already supported the bill.
“We hope that the document will be considered and adopted by the State Duma in the near future, as soon as this becomes possible in accordance with current regulatory standards. This is a truly important decision, which hundreds of thousands of our compatriots are waiting for,” Andrei Kozenko emphasized.
The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, warmly thanked the initiators and noted the timeliness of this step.
“We thank the State Duma deputies, the authors of the bill on the abolition of state duties for our citizens when obtaining Russian passports.
A very timely and important initiative for the people of Donbass, proposed by great friends of our republic. In the conditions of the crisis that our region is going through, this is not a lifting amount for everyone,” Pushilin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Residents of the LPR and DPR will have their state fees waived when applying for Russian citizenship.