Translated material
From the history of trade in gas and people
It seems that the ten-year debate between Turkmenistan and Russia about the existence of the institution of dual Turkmen-Russian citizenship is approaching its climax. Let us recall that the institution that allows citizens of both countries to additionally have the citizenship of the other party was enshrined in the intergovernmentalAgreement of 1993 . But in 2003, President Niyazov, under the pretext that criminals who committed crimes in Turkmenistan were hiding in Russia , made every effort to eliminate this institution and break the intergovernmental agreement.
But the trigger for the birth of the whole problem with dual citizenship was the Protocol on the Termination of the Agreement of 1993 , signed by Saparmurat Niyazov and Vladimir Putin in 2003. Then, having signed this protocol, Putin tried to close the issue by saying the phrase that later became famous : “whoever wanted to, left,” implying that the 1993 Agreement had an “evacuation” character and was developed specifically to provide legal support for the migration of the Russian-speaking population from Turkmenistan to Russia . However, even a brief acquaintance with the text of the Agreement is enough to make sure that the Agreement specifically provided for guarantees of the rights of those people who, for some reason, decided to stay to live in one of the countries of the Agreement, and did not have any “evacuation” component.
What added cynicism to the whole situation was that literally a minute before the signing of the protocol on the termination of the Agreement, an unprecedented contract was signed for the sale of all free Turkmen gas to Russia for a period of 25 years . In Turkmenistan, and then in the information space, this agreement was not called anything other than the “gas-people” agreement . It does not help that the leadership of the Russian Gazprom constantly disowns the information that the signing of the protocol on the termination of the Agreement and the agreement on gas supplies were somehow logically linked into a kind of “package agreement.” In the Turkmen public consciousness, and in the international consciousness, these two documents are firmly connected.
Vladimir Putin, at one of his subsequent press conferences, publicly apologized for the phrase “those who wanted to, left.” But this formulation has already been adopted by Turkmen propaganda and is still used today .
Then, in 2003, immediately after the signing of the protocol on the termination of dual citizenship, Niyazov, accordingly, without any problems carried out its ratification in parliament (Majlis) and, without waiting for the corresponding ratification of this protocol by the State Duma of Russia, issued a decree ordering that within two months All holders of dual citizenship will have their citizenship determined. It is difficult to convey the panic that gripped this category of citizens.
Real estate prices fell sharply in anticipation of the mass departure of Russian-speaking residents, certain government officials, taking advantage of the confusion, began to engage in blackmail and racketeering , extorting bribes for processing documents for the sale of real estate, processing customs documents... The situation was slightly calmed by the decision of the State Duma of Russia to refuse to ratify the protocol , dictated by media reports about panic among the population of Turkmenistan and the arbitrariness of the authorities there.
Trying to smooth out the situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement that the Turkmen side misunderstood the essence of the termination of the 1993 Agreement and the law does not have retroactive force: everyone who received citizenship before the signing of the protocol must certainly retain it .
But the fact remains that at the time of signing the protocol on the termination of the institution of dual citizenship, more than 120 thousand Russian citizens permanently residing in Turkmenistan were permanently registered with the Russian Embassy in Turkmenistan. According to official information from the embassy, at the beginning of 2013, 43 thousand Russian citizens were permanently registered. Over the next 10 years, the Turkmen authorities fought with varying intensity against dual citizenship , essentially leaving the only privilege for this category of citizens - to travel outside Turkmenistan without a visa. All other provisions of the Agreement, which de facto continues to be in effect, were grossly violated and discredited .
In many government agencies, persons with dual citizenship were identified and subsequently dismissed or transferred to lower positions . It got to the point that the authorities obliged the relevant authorities to carry out inspections in kindergartens and schools - children and parents were forced to bring birth certificates, which included a stamp indicating Russian citizenship.
The next round of aggravation around “dual” citizens occurred in 2008, immediately after the military conflict between Russia and Georgia, one of the reasons for which was “violation of the rights of Russian citizens and Russian compatriots.” Then the Turkmen authorities urgently organized demonstration and unplanned military exercises in the western region of the country, closest to Russia.
This was also reflected in the position of “dual” citizens. They were prohibited from freely leaving Turkmenistan to all countries , with the exception of Russia, even if they had a visa for the country of destination in their Russian passport, regular campaigns were carried out to identify persons with Russian citizenship with subsequent purges, the privatization of housing was suspended - another privilege for those who, on the basis of Russian citizenship or the status of a migrant to Russia, decided to privatize and sell their housing before moving. At the same time, the new edition of the Constitution of Turkmenistan included an article stating that Turkmenistan does not recognize the citizenship of another country for its citizens.
With all this, fluctuations in the mood of the Turkmen authorities towards Russian citizens coincided in time with relations with the Russian Gazprom . Whether it was an explosion on a gas pipeline going to Russia or Gazprom’s reduction in purchases of Turkmen gas resulted in yet another pressure on this category of citizens .
The final attack on the institution of dual citizenship was the initiative of the Turkmen authorities to replace foreign passports. In mid-2011, notices appeared at all border crossing points stating that old-style passports would cease to be valid on July 10, 2013 . The list of documents required to obtain a new passport included a requirement to provide information about the presence of citizenships other than Turkmen. At the same time, those who indicated that they had a different citizenship were denied passports.
At first, there were simply long delays , and then migration service employees openly spoke about the need to renounce Russian citizenship as a condition for obtaining a new Turkmen passport. To the next wave of indignation in the Russian media and notes from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry responded with a familiar formula: “The 1993 agreement fulfilled its historical mission.”
Meanwhile, during the general population census that took place at the end of last year, census takers, “off the record,” asked questions about citizenship and what citizenship people would choose if faced with such a choice.
Having suffered through everything over the past 10 years, Russian citizens in Turkmenistan associated every meeting between the presidents of the two countries with the hypothetical possibility of achieving some kind of compromise on the issue of citizenship. But Vladimir Putin’s last visit to Turkmenistan for the CIS summit did not live up to their expectations.
At the beginning of this year, and as a gesture of the last hope for preserving Russian citizenship, several initiative groups brought appeals collected in Turkmenistan to Russian authorities at various levels: from the Administration of the President of Russia, the State Duma to the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia.
A week ago, like a bolt from the blue , there was a message that , on the initiative of the Russian side, a conversation took place between the presidents of Russia and Turkmenistan and “... when discussing humanitarian issues, special attention was paid to the situation of persons with dual citizenship living in Turkmenistan.”
The sigh of relief was again replaced by anxious anticipation - the detailed content of the conversation was not disclosed, but the Turkmen media, having mentioned the fact of the conversation, did not mention the topic , and this once again made people wary.
Less than a week after the aforementioned conversation between the presidents, information began to arrive from different parts of the country from Russian citizens that representatives of local authorities began visiting houses and apartments with questions about which citizenship - Turkmen or Russian - the respondents decided to keep .
Further - more. Those who had already submitted documents to receive a new type of passport and indicated that they had Russian citizenship received a call from employees of the Turkmen migration service with the same question, but posed somewhat differently: “Have you already renounced Russian citizenship? Without this, there will be no Turkmen passport!”
Once again, by an amazing coincidence, the attempts of the Turkmen authorities to resolve the “Russian” issue coincide with the next initiatives to bring Turkmen gas to international markets : be it selling it to Russia , or bypassing it - to Europe . This time, in the middle of the year, just when the abolition of old-style passports and Russian citizenship is scheduled, respectively, an agreement is scheduled to be signed with the European Union on the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline, which should ensure gas supplies to Europe , bypassing Russia, which Russia opposes . Local and international observers are already directly linking these two events .
According to one version, Berdymukhamedov needs to get rid of any, even hypothetical, reason that could give Russia a reason to put pressure on him . And that is why the problem of dual citizenship is being so vigorously pushed right now. Other observers say that Berdymukhamedov is deliberately going into conflict with Russia before signing a gas agreement with Europe in order to have a reason to convict the Russian authorities of neo-imperialism, using humanitarian problems to solve geopolitical problems and actually depriving Turkmen gas of access to Europe . How to earn additional moral support from the West .
In any case, there are no other motives for such a quick solution to the problem of dual citizenship in Turkmenistan. The Russian-speaking community and Russian citizens in particular do not pose a threat in the form of a “fifth column.” And as such, a united community does not exist; this category of the population is politically apathetic and completely loyal to the Turkmen authorities.
According to the Russian Embassy in Turkmenistan, at the end of 2012, 43 thousand Russian citizens were permanently registered with the embassy. A comparable number of applications from this category of citizens must be submitted to President Putin for signature; it is he, according to the Russian Constitution, who decides all issues with entry and exit from Russian citizenship.
Even if we take into account all the gas interests of the Russian Gazprom in the gas intrigues around Turkmen gas , Vladimir Putin will again have to make a choice between the interests of Gazprom and the constitutional responsibilities to protect the rights of Russian citizens who have been living hostage to gas interests for 10 years. We will find out what this choice will be before July 10th .