Russia: New Hurdle Imposed for Residency
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Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 21:46:44 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Russia: New Hurdle Imposed for Residency
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>
Russia: New Hurdle Imposed for Residency
New Hurdle Imposed for Residency
By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
The Moscow Times
January 17, 2001
An estimated 2 million citizens of other CIS countries who are living
permanently in Russia are facing a new bureaucratic hurdle: As of Jan.
1, their old Soviet passports are no longer sufficient, and they now
have to obtain residence permits. Those who arrived after Oct. 1,
2000, have to present passports of their countries of citizenship.
"Essentially, it is simple. A Turkish citizen who is repairing GUM
(the department store) and a Ukrainian citizen who is repairing your
apartment are now on equal terms," said Leonid Gerbanovsky, deputy
head of the Interior Ministry's department of visas and registrations,
or OVIR.
Interior Ministry officials explained Tuesday at a briefing that the
1992 law on Russian citizenship had an article creating special travel
privileges and a simplified procedure of obtaining Russian passports
for citizens of the former Soviet Union. The article expired Dec. 31.
"All those who have lived in the Russian Federation and were
permanently registered will receive residency permits," said Major
General Yury Sharagorov, acting head of the department that oversees
OVIR. "All those who are registered temporarily will be registered
according to the 1981 law (on the status of foreign citizens) for up
to 90 days (at a time) - there is no other law so far." Alexander
Aksyonov, head of OVIR, said that of the estimated 2 million people
affected by the change, only 585,000 are registered permanently and
382,000 have temporary registration. Between 500,000 and 600,000
people have lost the citizenship of their countries of origin and have
not obtained Russian citizenship. They will now be treated as people
without citizenship.
Svetlana Gannushkina, head of Grazhdanskoye Sodeistviye, which assists
refugees and other migrants, described the situation as a
"catastrophe," because people were given no warning.
Additional difficulties may arise when people turn to CIS embassies to
obtain passports. "The Azerbaijan Embassy will never issue a passport
to an Armenian from Baku, the Georgian Embassy will never give one to
an Abkhaz," Gannushkina said.
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