| Russian Federation passports are offered for purchase through competition The homeland is not for sale, but Russian citizenship may be offered to buy for those who want to legally own a passport with a double-headed eagle. The new head of the Rodina faction, Alexander Babakov, in collaboration with the old leader Dmitry Rogozin and fellow party members Andrei Savelyev and Oleg Denisov, propose to legalize the shadow flows of funds absorbed by migration officials and openly offer applicants the opportunity to acquire Russian citizenship through a competition. “Since there is a significant category of persons interested in quickly acquiring Russian citizenship and who have financial resources, the bill provides for another new procedure for Russian legislation - the purchase of citizenship,” says the explanatory note of the deputies to the bill, which they submitted to the State Duma and contains a number of amendments to migration legislation. It remains to be seen how the Kremlin and United Russia will react to this initiative, but it is already clear that it is this proposal of Rodina that is receiving positive feedback from opponents of this nationalist-leaning party.
With their initiative, the Rodina people demonstrate an amazing openness to the outside world, although only to the wealthy world. The procedure they propose is designed for foreigners and stateless persons who want to acquire Russian citizenship in an accelerated or simplified manner. In addition, according to the deputies, such a legal institution should be created “in order to avoid the emergence of corruption situations in the process of obtaining citizenship, as well as in order to replenish the federal budget.”
So far, no specific proposals have been made on calculating the price for citizenship, the mechanism for holding competitions, and the calculation has not been made public. But it is already obvious that Rodina’s proposal will not go unnoticed and will spark a discussion about patriotism. However, this idea is unlikely to be dismissed out of hand. “Paradoxical as it may seem, in this seemingly almost cynical proposal of “Motherland” (as if “They are selling the Motherland!”) there are rational grains, thanks to which many people who are at an impasse with citizenship can find a way out,” Chairman of the executive committee of the Forum of Resettlement Organizations Lidiya Grafova told a Vremya Novostei correspondent yesterday. -- The fact is that the laws “On Citizenship” and “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens” are such “bribery-intensive” documents that a trap awaits the citizenship applicant at literally every step. Either he must give a bribe to an official, or he ends up in a bureaucratic “meat grinder” that grinds his bones, nerves, and life for years. So, our compatriots who come to Russia still have to pay money for legalization, for simple legalization, not to mention citizenship, at every step.”
Ms. Grafova bases her opinion on the experience of communicating with thousands of refugees and migrants who, faced with the Russian bureaucratic machine, turn to the Forum of Resettlement Organizations for help. “People don’t have the opportunity to work, they are begging, waiting for this or that certificate to be given to them, they waste their nerves, all this drags on for months and years. All certificates are very expensive. And people say: “Yes, we would borrow and pay, so as not to suffer, but so that it would not go into the official’s pocket, but into the state budget,” she claims.
However, human rights activists believe that the legal trade in Russian passports - although this is practiced in some countries - is still a last resort. “It would be much more effective to change the law “On Citizenship” and adopt ready-made amendments to the law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens,” says Lydia Grafova. - But since our state is completely corrupt, since the processes associated with legalization have become a real feeding trough for a whole host of migration officials, since money has to be paid one way or another, I would, oddly enough, support this paradoxical proposal of “Motherland” today " Irina BELASHEVA |
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