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Russian State Duma excludes norms of citizenship deprivation from anti-terror package

The provision on citizenship deprivation for dual nationals who have committed terrorist acts was initially stipulated in the bill of the first reading

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. The State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee has decided to exclude the norms of the Russian citizenship deprivation in the anti-terror package of bills submitted by deputy Irina Yarovaya and senator Viktor Ozerov, according to the document’s new version obtained by TASS on Thursday.

Specifically, the document’s new version excludes the provisions adopted in the second basic reading to the effect that persons having two citizenships will be deprived of the Russian citizenship for enrolling for work at foreign special services and in the case of committing terrorist crimes.

The provision on citizenship deprivation for dual nationals who have committed terrorist acts was initially stipulated in the bill of the first reading. Then the committee proposed for the second reading to prescribe in greater detail in the law on citizenship that the Russian citizenship may be terminated as a result of exiting from it pursuant to the voluntary expression of a person’s will made in writing as per the established form and also "the voluntary expression of a person’s will made in the form of committing acts stipulated by this law."

In particular, the bill envisaged that a person would be deemed to have lost Russian citizenship "as a result of enrolling for military service, work with security bodies or law enforcement bodies, including in courts, of a foreign state from the day of enrolment for such service."

It was also proposed that a person would be deemed as voluntarily exiting from the Russian citizenship in case that the person had committed a crime stipulated by the "terrorist" articles of the Criminal Code of Russia from the day the court’s verdict would come into legal force.

At the same time, the deputies made a reservation that withdrawal from the Russian citizenship "In the form of committing acts" was not permitted, if a Russian citizen had no other citizenship and guarantees for its acquisition."

The latest version of the bill excludes all these norms.