MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2020) Russian lower house lawmaker Vitaly Milonov has extended an offer to Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko to return the ethnic origin category to Russian passports, specifying that each passport holder should be able to make a decision voluntarily on whether to include this information in the document or not.
"I ask you to consider the idea of resuming the indication of citizens' ethnic origin in passports. This information can be included in the document without changing its external or internal design, it can be indicated in the 'Special marks' section, like blood type or military service obligation are indicated in some cases," Milonov said in his letter to Chuychenko, seen by Sputnik.
Inclusion of this information in the passport should be voluntary, the lawmaker stressed.
"In our country, the 'national issue' was long associated with negative phenomena of the late Soviet period. The notorious 'fifth paragraph' [where nationality was indicated in Soviet passports] and the tacit division of nationalities under principle of loyalty to the [ruling] Communist Party have negatively influenced the idea of documented preservation of the citizens' national and ethnic identity," Milonov explained.
Although the removal of the ethnic origin category from passports became a symbol of "a democratic escape from the darkness of red despotism," now, decades later, some citizens want to return the relevant paragraph to the main identity document, according to Milonov.
The lawmaker has expressed the belief that this could serve as a proof of victory over nationalistic stereotypes.
