Russia's Constitutional Court starts reviewing the legality of granting citizenship to Crimeans

Russia’s Constitutional Court has started reviewing the legality of granting Russian citizenship to the people of Crimea, responding to a complaint filed by Aleksey Olenyov, who argues that the legal process Moscow adopted to absorb the peninsula and naturalize its population was unconstitutional.

According to the newspaper Vedomosti, Olenyov tried to get Russian citizenship as an unofficial resident of Crimea, where he was living, unregistered, at the time of Moscow's annexation. Despite submitting all the required paperwork proving his unofficial residency, he says, his citizenship request was denied.