$OH[DQGHU6DOHQNR 3.3.4 Registration of Citizenship Additionally the Russian legislator has established a simplified naturalisation procedure in the form of registration. Article 18 of the 1991 Citizenship Law listed all categories of persons who could obtain the Russian citizenship through registration: 1) the spouse of a Russian citizen or any person with a lineal relative who had Russian citizenship, 2) a child whose parents were citizens of the Russian Federation at the time of his or her birth was also deemed to be a citizen of the Russian Federation irrespective of the place of birth, 3) a child of a former Russian citizen who was born after termination of his or her parents’ citizenship could apply within 5 years of reaching the age of 18, 4) a USSR citizen who was permanently residing on the territory of other republics which were part of the former USSR as of 1 September 1991 if they were not citizens of those republics and if they declared their wish to acquire Russian citizenship within 3 years46 of the Russian law on citizenship coming into force, 5) persons without citizenship on the date of the Russian citizenship law coming into force who permanently resided on Russian Federation territory or that of other republics which were part of the former USSR as of 1 September 1991 if they declared their wish to acquire Russian citizenship within 1 year of the law coming into operation, 6) foreign citizens or persons without citizenship irrespective of their place of residency if they themselves or at least one of their parents was a Russian citizen at birth and within 1 year of this law coming into force they declared their wish to acquire Russian citizenship. To sum it up, between 1991-2000 registration was the most frequently used method47 of obtaining Russian citizenship. Unfortunately, there is no reliable statistical information regarding acquisition of Russian citizenship based on the particular provisions of the 1991 Citizenship Law. Thus, there is no information on how many foreign citizens obtained Russian citizenship through marriage with a Russian citizen. Given there was no minimum duration of the marriage, we can only guess how many fictive marriages were concluded in order to obtain Russian citizenship. Nevertheless, the 1991 Citizenship Law played a very positive role in establishing the foundations of the modern Russian citizenship regime. 4 Current citizenship regime On 19 April 2002, the State Duma of Russia adopted the Federal Law ‘About Citizenship of the Russian Federation’. The draft of this federal law was brought into the State Duma by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. On 15 May 2002 the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament - the Council of the Federation - approved the citizenship law and on 31 May 2002 the new Citizenship Law of Russia was signed by the Russian President (and entered into force on 1 July 2002). The 2002 Citizenship Law of Russia replaced the previous 1991 Citizenship Law (Golovistikova 2005). Thus began a new chapter in the development of the Russian Citizenship doctrine (Kutafin 2003: 170). There were several reasons for the adoption of the new Citizenship Law (Shevel 2008). Firstly, it was necessary to bring domestic citizenship legislation in line with constitutional standards. The 1993 Russian Constitution provided some legislative innovations such as the nonrecognition of Republican Citizenship. Thus, the provision regarding the citizenship of the republics of the Russian Federation was not included into the Citizenship Law of 2002. Eventually, the Russian legislator removed the declarative construction of twofold citizenship in the Russian 46 Initially the deadline for the application for the Russian citizenship through registration was on 6 February 1995. However, taking into account the great demand for this simplified order (registration procedure) from the side of the citizens of the former USSR, in 1995 the Russian legislator extended the deadline for application until 31 December 2000. 47 According to the Russian Citizenship Law 1991 (art.12) citizenship of the Russian Federation can be acquired: 1) by recognition, 2) by registration, 3) by birth, 4) by naturalisation, 5) by restoration of citizenship, 6) by optation.  56&$6(8'2&,7&5‹$XWKRU