ALPEYEVA AND DZHALAGONIYA v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 5 A copy of [the second applicant’s] passport issued on 21 December 1981 by the Chkhorozkuskiy Department of the Interior of the Republic of Georgia contains a [glued] insert issued by the Department of the Interior of the Leninskiy District of Rostov-on-Don on 21 December [year illegible] to the effect that [the second applicant] is a citizen of the Russian Federation in accordance with section 13(1) of the Russian Citizenship Act of 28 November 1991. On 29 January 2010 ... a request was sent to [the FMS of the Rostov Region] to confirm that [the second applicant] had Russian citizenship. According [to the information received], the issue of the above insert to [the second applicant] and its lawfulness or otherwise is [not] [section illegible] confirmed ... The decision to issue [the second applicant] with [a Russian] passport was made ... by [V.], former head of the Passport and Visa Directorate of Police Office no. 1 of Taganrog, in the Rostov Region, who on 26 April 2004 was ... dismissed from service because she had reached retirement age. It appears to be impossible to question [V.] concerning the circumstances of the issue of the Russian passport [to the second applicant], since she is absent from her place of residence. Accordingly, [V.] ... issued [the second applicant] with a Russian passport in the absence of documents confirming that he was a Russian citizen, and without checking the documents presented for the issue (exchange) of the passport, in breach [of the rules] then in force. The above circumstances allow the supposition that [V.] might have had an interest in issuing [the second applicant] with a Russian passport in breach of the established rules, which constitutes an offence punishable under Article 286 of the Criminal Code. Furthermore, it may be conjectured that [the second applicant] presented a passport [issued in 1981] which contained wrong information to the effect that he had Russian citizenship. On the basis of the foregoing, [it is proposed] ... to consider that [the second applicant’s passport] was issued in breach of the established rules ...” 3. Refusal to exchange the Russian passport 40. On 22 July 2010, when the second applicant turned 45, in accordance with the applicable procedure, he applied to the FMS to exchange his passport. 41. The second applicant received a verbal refusal to issue him with a new passport. According to the official who notified him of the refusal, the second applicant had failed to prove that he had had a permanent place of residence in Russia on 6 February 1992 (see paragraph 57 below), and he had only had a registered place of residence in Russia since February 2002. 42. On 28 July 2010 the second applicant provided the Kostroma Region FMS with a written explanation to the effect that between 1989 and 2002 his place of residence had been registered in Rostov-on-Don, although he had actually been living with his partner, M., in the Krasnodar Region. 43. On 13 August 2010 the Residential Registration Department of the Leninskiy District of Rostov-on-Don provided the second applicant with a