Acquisition of nationality through naturalization Acquisition of nationality through naturalization Russian Federation • Some important reforms were introduced in the 2002 Law on Citizenship, which drew on the technical advice of international legal experts on how to address statelessness in the context of State succession. • A facilitated naturalization procedure, available from 2003 to 2009, allowed former USSR citizens to acquire Russian nationality. More than 650,000 stateless persons acquired Russian nationality through naturalization between 2003 and 2012. • In 2009, the 2002 Law “On Citizenship” was amended to extend the list of persons eligible to acquire citizenship through the simplified procedure. • At UNHCR’s 2011 Ministerial Meeting, the Russian Government pledged to introduce procedures to facilitate acquisition of citizenship and issue residency permits to additional categories of stateless persons. • Additional amendments to the Russian Citizenship Law that were adopted in November 2012 filled remaining gaps in the law to reduce statelessness. Statelessness in the Russian Federation The break-up of the former Soviet Union left millions of people stateless in the newlyindependent Russian Federation. Pursuant to Article 13.1 of the 1991 Federal Law on Citizenship (1991 Citizenship Law) former Soviet citizens who were permanent residents in the Russian Federation on the day the law took effect were considered to be Russian citizens, but were entitled to make a declaration that they did not wish to be considered as citizens within a year from the entry into force of the Law. In addition to this, stateless persons who resided permanently in the territory of the Russian Federation or another 42 U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S