Russian Interior Ministry seeks surveillance mandate to look for covert Ukrainians in Russia and occupied Ukrainian regions
Russia’s Interior Ministry (MVD) has presented the draft of a proposed presidential decree that, if approved, would enable the law enforcement to surveil former Ukrainian nationals who renounced their citizenship in Russia but continue to exercise their rights in Ukraine.
The document was published on the state website for public discussions of project legislation. It’s intended to amend the current simplified rules for renouncing Ukrainian citizenship, implemented in Russia and on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. The simplified procedure, adopted in March, lets Russian nationals give up their Ukrainian passports without waiting for confirmation from Kyiv, simply by filling out a form and signing a statement of renouncing the rights and duties of Ukrainian citizenship.
The MVD’s proposal would enable the law enforcement to look for violations like receiving state pensions and subsidies from Ukraine and other covert ways of exercising Ukrainian citizenship rights. If discovered, violations would be reported to the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The draft decree would apply not only to Russia proper, but also to the residents of Russian-annexed Ukrainian territories: Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk self-proclaimed “republics,” as well as the occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.
