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Federation. Secondly, it was necessary to abolish several provisions of the 1991 Citizenship Law
which were outdated and not applicable. It was also politically expedient to limit the ease with
which people were able to acquire Russian citizenship (for example, by marriage). Finally, on 6
November 1997, Russia signed the European Convention on Nationality, which necessitated a new
version of the Citizenship Law of Russia.
4.1 Acquisition of citizenship by birth
The acquisition of Russian citizenship by birth is mostly made on the basis of ius sanguinis and in
some exceptional cases based on the principle of ius soli. According to Article 12 of the 2002 Law,
Russian citizenship will be given to a child whose parents or single parent have Russian citizenship
(irrespective of the child's place of birth). In addition, the acquisition of Russian citizenship by birth
on the basis of ius sanguinis is applicable if at the date of birth of the child one of its parents has
Russian citizenship and the other parent is a stateless person or was declared an unaccounted
person. A child shall also obtain the Russian citizenship by birth based on the combination of ius
sanguinis and ius soli if one of the child’s parents has Russian citizenship and the other one is a
foreign citizen, on the condition that the child has been born on Russian territory or if otherwise he
or she would become a stateless person.
The 2002 Citizenship Law also established the procedure for the acquisition of Russian
citizenship based on ius soli. Thus, according to Article 12(1d) of the Russian Citizenship Law,
Russian citizenship shall be granted to a child if both the child’s parents or the child’s only parent
residing in the territory of the Russian Federation are foreign citizens or stateless persons, on
condition that the child has been born in the territory of the Russian Federation, while the state
where child’s parents are citizens does not grant its citizenship thereto. Moreover, according to
act.12(2) of the 2002 Citizenship Law, a child found on the territory of the Russian Federation and
whose parents are unknown shall become a Russian Federation citizen if the parents fail to appear
within six month after the time the child was found (i.e. the acquisition of Russian citizenship on
the basis of ius soli).
4.2 Acquisition by admission (naturalisation)
The Russian legislator does not use the term ‘naturalisation’. Instead, the term ‘admission into
citizenship’ (priyom v grazhdanstvo - 2",7: ) !"#$%#&'()*) has been fixed in the 2002
Citizenship Law of Russia. However, the examination of the admission procedure provides
evidence that this is the same as the naturalisation procedure known in the legislation of other
modern states. According to the 2002 Citizenship Law, there are two possible procedures for
admission (naturalisation) into Russian citizenship: the General Order (art.13) and Simplified
Procedure (art.14).
4.2.1 General order of admission (naturalisation) into Russian citizenship
According to Article 13 of the Citizenship Law 2002, any foreign citizens or stateless persons can
be admitted into the citizenship of Russia if they apply for naturalisation (admission) and fulfill the
following conditions (Blinov, Chaplin 2002):
1) That they have resided on the territory of the Russian Federation since the day when they
received a residence permit and to the day when they file a naturalisation application asking for
Russian Federation citizenship for five years without a break.48 The term of residence in the
territory of the Russian Federation for the persons who had arrived to the Russian Federation
48
The duration of residence in the territory of the Russian Federation shall be deemed without a break if the person left
the Russian Federation for a term not exceeding three months in one year.
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