$OH[DQGHU6DOHQNR Finally, in 2008, due to changes in Russian immigration law the following persons can acquire Russian citizenship based on the simplified procedure - in particular without observing the conditions regarding the minimum duration (5 years) of lawful residence in Russia, a legal source of income and the Russian language test: foreign citizens and stateless persons who have registration of their permanent residence on the territory of the Russian Federation or who are subjects of the Russian Federation selected for residence due to participation in the State Program for the voluntary resettlement in Russia of compatriots living abroad. 5 Implementation of the Russian Citizenship Law 2002 5.1 Factual deprivation of Russian citizenship Confiscation of passports (factual deprivation of citizenship) based on the decision of public officials of the FMS became a painful problem in Russia. Between 1991 and 2000 a considerable number of former Soviet citizens obtained Russian citizenship when they lived in territories of the former Soviet republics of the USSR. The granting of Russian citizenship (by the issue of Russian passports) was carried out by Russian embassies/consulates, and also by commanders of military units on the territory of the former republics of the USSR according to the previous Russian Citizenship Law of 1991. Afterwards it became clear that when granting Russian citizenship and passports many public officials did not include information about these new Russian citizens in the general register of all citizens of the Russian Federation. This would cause these citizens problems in the future, From 2003 to 2010 the Federal Migration Service of Russia implemented a special operation named ‘total control’49, whereby they confiscated passports from those who needed their old Russian passport replaced by the new one. According to Russian legislation it is necessary to obtain a new passport at age 20 and 45 years, or when a person’s surname changes by marriage or divorce. When officials subsequently did not find any information about these Russian citizens in the databases of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and FMS of Russia, they interpreted this as either an absence (non-acquisition) of Russian citizenship or that they had been illegitimately registered as Russian citizens. As a result the public officials refused to issue new passports. Quite often this decision was also accompanied by withdrawal of the applicant's passport or by declaring all ID documents confirming their Russian citizenship to be invalid. De facto Russian citizens were thus extrajudicially deprived of their citizenship and became stateless (ex curia deprivation of citizenship).50 This situation could have been easily avoided. For more than a decade, almost all of these 'aliens' (non-citizens/stateless persons) had voted in Russian elections, served in the Russian army, and were sometimes even on public or municipal service. They paid taxes, received Russian international passports, and then - due to an administrative decision (ex curia) were declared persons without citizenship. For example, in the Kaliningrad region a considerable proportion of these persons were family members of the military personnel of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation who received passports (or special certificate about belonging to the Russian citizenship) 49 Lidia Grafova. To deprive of the passport - to deprive of life. Russian gazette, N4990, 4.09.2009. http://www.rg.ru/2009/09/04/lukin.html [01-12 3+&4)*&. 01>1/6 (&.()+/& - $1>1/6 ,19"1. ?)..1@.;&2 %&9#/& N4990 )/ 4 .#"/2:+2 2009 %.] 50 Natalia Kozlova. Troika confiscates passports. Ten thousands of Russian are deprived of citizenship by administrative decision of officials. Russian gazette, 15.12.2010. http://www.rg.ru/2010/12/15/fms.html [O&/&$62 K)9$)*&. W+)@;& )/"1=&#/ (&.()+/&. S#.2/;1 /'.2< +)..12" <1")*"1;1 .):./*#""'= +#>#"1#= $1>&7/ %+&,-&"./*&. ?)..1@.;&2 %&9#/& N5362 )/ 15 -#;&:+2 2010 %.]  56&$6(8'2&,7&5‹$XWKRU