Reform of the Federal Law on Citizenship of the Russian Federation By 1999, little time remained for those wishing to acquire Russian nationality through registration as the process was to close at the end of 2000. Aware that many former Soviet citizens remained without regularized status in the Russian Federation, the Government began proceedings to reform the 1991 Citizenship Law and harmonize it with the Russian Constitution of 1993. The complex interplay of nationality laws in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia had revived the interest of the international legal community, particularly in the Council of Europe, to strengthen legal norms to guarantee the right to a nationality and to prevent statelessness in the context of State succession.32 A Citizenship Commission established by the Russian Government to review the 1991 Citizenship Law invited Council of Europe nationality law experts as well as UNHCR’s statelessness specialist to participate in a series of four meetings in Moscow and Strasbourg. The meetings, conducted between 1999 and 2001, discussed reform of the 1991 Citizenship Law. This consultative process gave UNHCR an opportunity to ensure that the reform process would help to reduce and prevent statelessness. The new Federal Law No. 62-FZ on Citizenship of the Russian Federation entered into force on 1 July 2002 (2002 Citizenship Law). Additional amendments to the law were passed in November 2003, with the objective of facilitating the acquisition of Russian Federation citizenship by former USSR citizens residing in the Russian Federation. The key provision that resulted in the reduction of statelessness concerned Article 14.4,33 which was introduced through the 2003 amendments. It was a temporary measure to facilitate the acquisition of Russian nationality through naturalization of former Soviet citizens on the basis of a temporary or permanent residence permit at the time the 2002 Citizenship Law took effect. This facilitated procedure for naturalization was extended three times by law and was in effect from 2003 through the end of June 2009. It is significant in that it waived the requirements that were most difficult to fulfil for citizens of the former USSR residing in the Russian Federation with undetermined nationality status, namely, proof of uninterrupted residence for five years, proof of means of self-sufficiency, and Russian-language proficiency. Applicants were also exempted from paying naturalization fees. Implementation of the simplified naturalization procedure Article 14.4 of the 2002 Citizenship Law required those who qualified to submit individual applications for naturalization, enabling the Russian Government to closely track the numbers of those who took advantage of this simplified procedure. According to statistics provided by the Russian Government to UNHCR, during the six-year time frame of the procedure a total of 2,679,225 people acquired Russian nationality through naturalization, of whom 575,044 were stateless.34 After the simplified naturalization procedure expired in 2009, stateless individuals were naturalized in 2010 and 2011 under the regular naturalization procedure, but at a much lower rate, thereby demonstrating the value of the simplified procedure.35 In total, more than 650,000 stateless persons acquired Russian nationality between 2003 and 2012. This represents one of the most successful efforts at reduction of statelessness in the past decade. 32 This resulted in the adoption of the European Convention on Nationality and the Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession. The Russian Federation signed the European Convention on Nationality in June 1997, but has yet to ratify it. 33 Federal Law No. 62-FZ of 31 May 2002 “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation” [Russian Federation], 1 July 2002, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ed72d964.html. Note that because Article 14.4 was introduced as a temporary measure through an amendment in 2003 and was only valid until 2009, the language of this provision is not included in the current text of the law available on Refworld. 34 The remaining 2,104,181 persons who acquired Russian nationality through naturalization were found to have possessed another nationality. In many instances, where these individuals had migrated to the Russian Federation from other former Soviet Republics they may have automatically acquired nationality of another successor State to the former Soviet Union, sometimes without knowing it, but intended to reside permanently in the Russian Federation. 35 The number of stateless persons who acquired citizenship in the Russian Federation in 2010 and 2011 was 19,000 and 15,144, respectively. 24 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS