Russian citizenship law

• 1. Legal Framework And Definitions

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  The federal law On Citizenship of the Russian Federation came into force on the 1st of July 2002. This statute replaced decades of imperial and Soviet regulations with a single codified system for determining who holds citizenship. The Constitution of Russia provides differing definitions for both terms; citizenship is the status given to an individual indicating the state which exercises jurisdiction over that particular person. Nationality refers to a person's ethnic group within the same legal framework. Soviet regulations required a person's nationality to be indicated on their internal passport, determined by the nationality of their parents. If their parents' nationalities differed, they could choose either nationality. Russian internal passports since the 1990s have omitted this information completely. In the Russian context, the two terms are not interchangeable and cannot be used as a synonym for the other.

• 2. Imperial Subjecthood Evolution

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  Before the concept of citizenship was codified in legislation, inhabitants of the Tsardom of Russia personally owed allegiance to the Russian monarch. There were no general requirements for becoming a Russian subject until the 16th century, when it became customary to treat any person who had been christened by the Russian Orthodox Church as having acquired subjecthood. Foreigners who wished to become Russian subjects were required to swear an oath of personal fealty to the Russian monarch beginning with the reign of Peter the Great. The oath used during this time required the subject to pledge themself as an obedient slave and eternal subject with my family of the sovereign. This wording remained unchanged until 1796, when the word slave was removed from the text. Provincial governments held wide discretion in determining who could be naturalized as Russian subjects until the 10th of February 1864, when the imperial government introduced a five-year residence requirement. That reform shifted authority over naturalization from provincial authorities to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire. The term citizenship became introduced in this reform as a different name for the concept of subjecthood.

• 3. Soviet Citizenship Ideology

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  After the October Revolution in 1917, the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic government abolished all previous imperial legislation. Prevailing Bolshevik theory at the time considered communism to be an international movement, which became reflected in citizenship regulations in the new state. Under the 1918 Russian constitution, local soviets were empowered to directly grant foreigners Soviet citizenship, particularly intended for those belonging to the peasant and working classes. No specific procedures were required to become a Soviet citizen during this time other than obtaining local authority approval. While this model of citizenship acquisition was quite simple and expeditious, contemporary regulations also allowed for citizenship deprivation at any time at the sole discretion of the central government. The RSFSR became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922, and citizenship regulations were restructured under the authority of the All-Union government following adoption of the 1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union. Every person living within the borders of the USSR was a Soviet citizen unless they declared themselves as foreign citizens. Standard regulations in other countries required wives and children to hold the same citizenship as the male head of the family. Soviet legislation deviated from the contemporary international norm and allowed Soviet women who married foreign men to retain their Soviet citizenship after marriage.

• 4. Post-Soviet Transition Period

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  In the waning days of the Union, the RSFSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on the 28th of November 1991. This declaration restated that every citizen of the RSFSR also held citizenship of the USSR. As part of its preparations for a reformed Soviet Union, the RSFSR drafted new citizenship legislation that brought regulations in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under this law, citizenship could no longer be deprived at the sole discretion of the government and holding multiple citizenships ceased to be strictly prohibited. This law did not come into force until the 6th of February 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Former Soviet citizens who were permanently resident in Russia on the 6th of February 1992 automatically became Russian citizens unless they explicitly applied to refuse citizenship by the 6th of February 1993. Residence was based on a person's officially listed place of domicile in the propiska system. Any other former Soviet citizen could obtain Russian citizenship by registration if they migrated to Russia between the 6th of February 1992 and the 31st of December 2000. Stateless persons living in Russia or a Union Republic that had remained part of the Soviet Union on the 1st of September 1991 could register as Russian citizens by the 6th of February 1993.

• 5. Dual Citizenship Agreements

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  As a result of the Soviet Union's collapse, large numbers of ethnic Russians became resident outside the boundaries of the Russian state. In order to give this population an opportunity to choose the country of their new affiliation, visa-free movement was established throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992. Facilitating this were dual citizenship treaties signed with Turkmenistan in 1993 and Tajikistan in 1996. Simplified naturalization procedures through which applicants of a treaty CIS country could acquire Russian citizenship after three months of their application were separately signed with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in 1996. Residents of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria were granted Russian citizenship under provisions of the 1991 law accommodating former Soviet citizens. Overseas Russians gained official status as compatriots in 1999 in Russian law, which defined them as any persons who lived outside the territory of the Russian Federation who themselves or their ancestors had previously lived in Russia. However, the Russian government had no wider initiative to resettle overseas Russians during this time and the agreement on CIS-wide free movement expired by 2000. The Ministry of Internal Affairs ceased issuing new Russian passports in that year to former Soviet citizens who did not have established propiska in Russia on the 6th of February 1992.

• 6. Modern Naturalization Requirements

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  The completely new citizenship law of the 28th of April 2023 138-FZ entered into force on the 26th of October 2023. At that moment the old law 62-FZ, which had been in force for more than 20 years, ceased to be in force. Foreign nationals may become citizens by admission after meeting a minimum residence requirement usually five years. They must prove a legal source of income and demonstrate proficiency in the Russian language. The residence requirement is reduced to one year for individuals who have been granted asylum or refugee status. It may also be waived for citizens of other post-Soviet states who have served in the Russian Armed Forces for at least three years. Additionally, the president of Russia has discretionary authority to directly grant citizenship to any foreigner. Certain groups qualify for facilitated acquisition without needing to fulfill a minimum residence requirement. These include persons with at least one Russian parent who lives within Russia and former Soviet citizens permanently resident in a post-Soviet state but have not acquired citizenship in that country. Citizens of a former Soviet state who have been educated in Russian secondary schools or universities since the 1st of July 2002 are also eligible.