The Moscow decision to simplify the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for citizens of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq has been based solely on humanitarian grounds, Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian lawmaker, told Sputnik on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2019) The Moscow decision to simplify the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for citizens of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq has been based solely on humanitarian grounds, Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian lawmaker, told Sputnik on Wednesday.Earlier on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree, facilitating a procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for some categories of people, including Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian citizens born in Soviet Russia, who had Soviet passports. The decree also covers Ukrainians and stateless people who were born and were permanently residing in Crimea but left the peninsula before its reunification with Russia. Children, including adoptees, spouses and parents of the aforementioned people will also qualify for the facilitated procedure.
"This is the next step ... to address socioeconomic, political and humanitarian issues faced by the people who maintain historical and spiritual ties with our country, but who have previously found themselves or are now in a difficult situation, triggered by repressive decisions of the Soviet era and ongoing conflicts [in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria]," Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliament's upper house, said.
Kosachev added that the decision to ease the citizenship process was another example of Moscow taking actions based solely on humanitarian grounds.
Sergei Gavrilov, the head of the Russian lower house's committee on civil society development, public and religious organizations, in turn, told Sputnik that the step "fully complies with international law and our international and humanitarian obligations."
He stressed that the decree was also in line with European conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"There are no grounds for European countries, as well the United States and Ukraine to raise the issue of violation of any rights," Gavrilov concluded.
The lawmaker added that the newly adopted measures had been under discussion in his committee for over a year.
