Some days ago, it was one year since they started to accept applications for Russian citizenship renunciation in Crimea. Queues, a lack of necessary information, numerous certificates, threats directed against them are the things that Crimeans, who refused to receive a Russian passport, had to face with. Someone was lucky – they could obtain a residence permit very soon, while other people still run from pillar to post. And someone simply couldn’t take the emotional pressure and decided to go to the mainland.
Why do you need this?
Relatives, friends and colleagues put this question to many “refuseniks”. “Follow the crowd, don’t stick your head out,” a “refusenik” Pavel looks back at his parents’ advices. “But I chose two reasons for myself – it is my child and ties with Ukraine (relatives, friends, unwillingness to be closed),” the man from Crimea continues to speak. “There can be another war unleashed when my child will be of full age. I don’t want him to lay down his life for ambitions of this state.” A woman from Simferopol Olga doesn’t regret her decision: “It was not even a choice for me. I was aware of future problems and knew what thing I was going to do. But I don’t collect citizenship and passports.”
Point of no return
Russia recognized all those people, who were registered in Crimea at the time of “historic reunification”, as citizens of the Russian Federation in accordance with the law No.6-FKZ dated March 21, 2014 and gave a period of one month (until April 18) to refuse a Russian passport. However, as Russian human rights activists reported, it was extremely difficult to undergo this procedure. Firstly, they started to accept documents just since April 1 and there were just three centers that worked in Crimea – in Simferopol, Belogorsk and Bakhchisaray. A few days later several new centers were opened – so together there were 8 centers. But it didn’t help to deal with the queues.
“Queues were so long that people stood nights being on duty. Also we needed to check out constantly, if you didn’t do that, then you have lost your place and should stay at the end of the line,” Tatyana Pasko says.
Vladimir Shlyahov sent his documents by mail and found out that they were received at the FMS (Federal Migration Service Department of Crimea) page in Facebook that was the only source of information at that time. Natalya also sent documents by mail, having enclosed even a self-addressed stamped envelope. “I got a notification that the FMS received my letter. But I have never got a confirmation that my application was submitted for review. And I got the certificate itself only in the end of January 2015,” the woman from Crimea says. But all these difficulties were just a prelude to the more severe trials.
Seven circles of hell
According to the Federal Migration Service Department, 3,427 people renounced the Russian citizenship, 900 people applied to get a residence permit on the base of the so called simplified procedure that eventually turned out to be no better than the standard one. Officials had no information, everyone interpreted the law in his own way, rules were constantly changing and people went around the circles. As a result, people had also to obtain necessary certificates from the housing and utilities department, income certificates, pass medical examination and receive documents without residence registration instead of minimum documents that FMS declared.
“Having stood in line for 6 weeks, I got an appointment at FMS. They took all my copies, but I didn’t fill out any documents or forms. I was told that everything would be ready just late January – early February, although the law says that 7 days reserved for this,” Vladimir Shlyahov shares his impressions. Then it turned out that a certificate from the housing and utilities department was missing from his documents, and when he brought it – the rules have changed again. “I was told that they changed the conditions and didn’t put the registration to the documents of such groups of people: you either receive documents without registration or get registered at your neighbors,” Vladimir summed up. He still doesn’t get his certificate of residence permit.
The woman from Simferopol Olga was even less fortunate: in addition to the queues to get certificates and be served at the FMS department, she had to pass medical examination because of newly changed requirements.
“I had a medical examination, received a certificate that I had no infectious, venereal and skin diseases and went to the second round of assault. Having forced my way (to the FMS department), I learned that the validity of a family composition certificate is 10 days,” the Crimean woman says about her hardships with hard feelings.
When she brought the new certificate from the housing and utilities department, it appeared that the medical certificate has expired, and in addition, the woman was required to bring an income certificate: “not less than 30 000 rubles.” Later, Olga learned that she wouldn’t receive a residence permit “under any circumstances”. The reason is her past activities: “participation in protest actions against the occupation, support for the Ukrainian military, clearly demonstrated disloyalty to the occupation authorities.”
“Refuseniks”: what comes next?
Under the Russian law people with a residence permit have the same social and economic rights as the citizens of the Russian Federation: they can work, receive pensions and other social benefits, take advantage of the prepaid medical care system. They are deprived of the opportunity to participate in elections, can’t do the military service and be in the government’s employ. However, in fact, public sector employees had serious problems: those who didn’t receive a Russian passport were denied in the extension of contracts. Besides this, Crimeans who obtained a residence permit faced with problems regarding registration at the place of residence and a period of stay in the peninsula. “All people who got a residence permit have temporary residential registration now, they should send a notification of staying in Crimea once a year, provide information about their source of income and not leave the peninsula for more than 180 days,” Vladimir says.
Having obtained a residence permit in November 2014, Pavel have been waiting in endless line for getting registration at the place of residence. According to him, just 11 people have been served in the Yalta FMS department since the beginning of December and until the end of January. In addition to the above, local officials solve problems radically in order to avoid being criticized: they take away lists of those people, who stay in queues, from the volunteers that maintain them. No lists – no problems.
“Sometimes everything begins to seem hopeless and pointless, but I chose this way myself,” Pavel says.
“Hit lists”
Actually, the waiver procedure allowed to create a list of unreliable persons. “When I was waiting in one of the endless lines at FMS, a pensioner-refusenik shared his fears: in case of official declaration of war by Russia we all will be deported as unreliable persons,” Pavel says. “To my mind, it is a good chance to jump out of a closing mousetrap.” However, refuseniks face a risk of deportation even without “official declaration of war”.
“Refuseniks” are under FSB scrutiny, they are summoned for preventive conversations, called “persons at extremist risk”; not only adults but even children are exposed to intimidation.
“On Friday, March 20, my son and another 13 children accompanied by their class teacher were taken by bus to unknown destination for “conversation” during school hours, without my knowledge and permission; they were held there for 4.5 hours. They frightened my child very much,” Olga says.
As for her, she was repeatedly summoned for conversations to FSB, last time they suggested that she could be found beaten near the entrance and “advised to be deported by her own.”
Without waiver and Russian passport
If it is possible to find some information regarding how many people refused a Russian passport and how many people got it, then it is impossible to count those, who didn’t apply for the refusal but at the same time didn’t receive the passport. By the way, this population category is the most vulnerable in the legal field. Many of them simply didn’t have time to apply documents for refusal, while many others had a principled position: why should I refuse the things that I’m imposed on? And some of them think that if they get a certificate from the occupation authorities, it will mean they recognize them. “I didn’t receive this piece of paper for two reasons. Firstly, they are occupants but not a legitimate government and if I got this piece of paper, I would recognize them as legal authorities but I don’t recognize. Secondly, this piece of paper would mean that I am a guest in my own home now,” a girl from Crimea Anna Zakharova who left the peninsula says.
Ukrainian legislation doesn’t recognize a forced automatic acquisition of Russian citizenship and doesn’t consider it as a reason for deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship (Art. 4 and 5 of the Law “On guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of citizens and on the legal regime on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine”). At the same time, Ukrainian lawyers believe that in essence, non-receipt of a Russian passport confirms non-receipt of Russian citizenship regardless of missed time limits to send the declaration of waiver.
“In other words, a person that doesn’t have a passport is not a citizen of the Russian Federation,” a partner at the law firm “Constructive Lawyers” Natalya Yavorskaya explains.
Starting from January 1, the citizens of Ukraine who didn’t receive a residence permit have become foreigners and, according to Russian laws, they can stay here no more than 90 days in total for 180 days. So, Natalya Yavorskaya sees the only way for legalization without a Russian passport in this case – it is to make approvals for engaging in labor activity (labor permit or patent) or a temporary residence permit. Nevertheless, the Russian FMS offers to obtain a Russian passport, next write an application for withdrawal from the Russian citizenship and then obtain a residence permit. But this procedure can drag on for years.
According to lawyers, the practice of “automatic citizenship” that Russia applied in Crimea contradicts not only international law instruments (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the European Convention on Nationality of 1997) but also statutes of the Russian law. In particular, actions of the Russian authorities don’t fall within any paragraph of the “Law on citizenship of the Russian Federation” of 2002.
Therefore, in the opinion of Natalya Yavorskaya, the policy of Russia in Crimea can be logically compared with the serfdom practice of “transferring the land together with peasants that live there from one landowner to another.” Crimeans became serfs and those, who don’t want to live under the feudal system laws, are consigned to serious trials or forced to leave the peninsula.
When preparing this material, we learned the stories of several Crimeans, who renounced the citizenship of the occupant. Their stories deserve to be fully published. That’s why we started the column “I renounced the Russian citizenship”, where we are going to publish stories of people, who chose to live with fight rather than with resignation.
