$OH[DQGHU6DOHQNR has been formally proclaimed. However, in practice this is still far from true: in some cases the Russian legislation regarding foreigners is still applicable to Belarusian citizens. For example, in a judgment on 27 April 2010 on the case N A62-8441/2009 the Federal Arbitration Court of the Central District de facto equated citizens of the Union State - Belarusians to foreign citizens. According to this case, the FMS branch of the Smolensk region of Russia has controlled ‘InterLogistikService’ Ltd. and fixed the violation of Russian immigration legislation (by the registration of working foreign citizens). The Russian authorities claimed that this enterprise had violated the Federal law in effect from 18 July 2006 N 109-FZ 'About the migratory registration of foreign citizens and stateless persons in the Russian Federation' (Art. 20 para 3). The company did not send a corresponding notification after the arrival of the citizen of the Republic of Belarus, Rogatko V.G., to the FMS office, and thus did not provide timely registration of the above mentioned foreign citizen. As result FMS officials made a decision on 12 October 2009 N 65 that the enterprise 'InterLogistikService' Ltd. had violated Russian immigration legislation and therefore was required to pay a fine of 400,000 rub (ca. 10.000 euros). Moreover, later the Russian court dismissed the reference of ‘InterLogistikService’ Ltd. to Art. 3 of the Agreement from 24 January 2006 between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus about ensuring the equal rights of citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus for freedom of movement and choice of a place of residence. It should be noted that the law provides such a possibility only if the citizen of the Republic of Belarus remains on the territory of the Russian Federation for no more than 30 days. Thus, despite the general declarations on the citizenship of the Union State, Russian courts apply to citizens of Belarus the provisions of the Federal law from 18 July 2006 N 109-FZ ‘About the migration control of foreign citizens and stateless persons in the Russian Federation’ (art. 20 para 6). Some Russian lawyers draw the conclusion that it is necessary to modify the current legislation of the Russian Federation regarding the legal status of foreign citizens and to establish the special status for citizens of Belarus as foreign citizens of the Union State (Yakovleva 2009). Such conclusions basically contradict the provisions of the founding documents of the Union State. As a result of the failure of Russian authorities there are no legal provisions regarding the union citizenship of Belarusians and Russians. This leads to situations that provisions of the Russian legislation regarding permissions for temporary residence in the Russian Federation are applicable also to citizens of the Republic of Belarus (as in the ordinary case with foreigners). Thus, in practice the Belarusian citizens, who have applied for temporary residence Russia, can be refused it on the grounds that the approved quota is exhausted.82 7 Conclusion Russian citizenship legislation has a considerable number of shortcomings. Certainly, its further modification will be inevitable in the coming years. One of the main problems is that the Russian public authorities do not have a clear vision of their citizenship and migration policy. This conclusion is confirmed by the political developments of the last 20 years. A long transition from maximum liberalism to rigid restrictions regarding naturalisation has taken place with the Russian citizenship regime. According to the opinion of leading experts a change of philosophy of 82 Batygin A. Without restrictions. Ensuring equal rights of citizens - a strategic objective of the Union State. Russian gazette. Union. Belarus - Russia. 23 October 2008 [5&/'%1" P. 5#9 )%+&"1<#"1@. B:#.(#<#"1# +&*#"./*& (+&* %+&,-&" - ./+&/#%1<#.;&2 D#$6 A)79")%) %).8-&+./*& // ?)..1@.;&2 %&9#/&. A)79. 5#$&+8.6 - ?)..12. 23 );/2:+2 2008 %)-&].  56&$6(8'2&,7&5‹$XWKRU