In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved and several new states emerged. At that point, Soviet passports became invalid and citizens of the former Soviet Union had to obtain citizenship from successor states. These states’ citizenship laws diverged significantly. Any former Soviet citizen living in Russian territory, for example, was entitled to Russian citizenship. Other successor states—like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—had more restrictive laws, which linked citizenship to ethnicity (UNHCR 1993). Emigrants from the Soviet Union prior to its Collapse Any resident who left the Soviet Union prior to its collapse may have experienced difficulty in securing citizenship in a successor state. Such persons may not have been able to prove they met residence requirements in their countries of origin (UNHCR and OSJI 2012, 13, 23). Members of this group are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness. Estonia Estonia’s post-Soviet citizenship law defined Estonian citizens as descendants of citizens of the previously independent Estonian republic. This law excluded Estonia’s large minority of Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians that constituted 35.1 percent of the population at independence (UNHCR 1993). This population received the status of “persons with undetermined citizenship,” a status denoting statelessness (UNHCR 2016c, 15). In 1993, Estonia adopted legislation that gave most members of this group a temporary residence permit and the right to apply for a permanent residence permit through July 1995. The vast majority applied and became permanent residents, although an estimated 3,000 to 30,000 of those eligible did not apply (UNHCR 2016c, 16; Poleschuk 2004, 12). Former USSR military personnel, their spouses, and persons convicted of a crime were not permitted to apply. Permanent residents with “undetermined citizenship” are permitted to obtain Estonian citizenship if they meet an Estonian language requirement, which is a significant hurdle for most in this group (Poleschuk 2004, 33). In 1998, the 1995 citizenship act was amended so that children born after February 1992 to persons with “undetermined citizenship” and who were younger than 15 years old could acquire Estonian citizenship through a streamlined naturalization procedure. In 2015, a new provision was adopted that automatically grants nationality at birth (parents no longer have to apply). As a result, the number of those with “undetermined citizenship” fell from roughly 500,000 in 1992 to 82,561 at the end of 2015, with naturalization accounting for about half of this decrease, and death, emigration, or acquisition of other citizenships accounting for the rest (UNHCR 2016c, 16). Ethnic Russians, Ukranians, and Belorussians from Estonia are thus potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness. Latvia As in the case of Estonia, Latvia’s initial post-Soviet citizenship law defined Latvian citizens as descendants of citizens of the previous independent Latvian republic. Many Soviet citizens who migrated to Latvia in the Soviet era were granted legal status, but excluded from Latvian nationality (ENS 2015, 3-4). These individuals made up 48 percent of Latvia’s population at independence 15