MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. The Federation Council upper house of Russian parliament passed a law on Tuesday that makes it mandatory for everyone accepting citizenship of the Russian Federation to take an oath of allegiance.
Simultaneously, the same law formulates the grounds for revoking citizenship from the individuals convicted for terrorism and extremism.
The document also contains the text of the oath for the individuals acceding to Russian citizenship. It says that an applicant for citizenship should take the oath after a state agency, which supervises citizenship affairs, takes a decision to grant it to him or her.
The oath of allegiance for accession to Russian citizenship will not be mandatory for the individuals younger than eighteen years old, for individuals whose legal incapacity to contract has been affirmed by court rulings, for those who cannot read out the text of the oath and/or sign it without the help from others, or any other individuals specified by decrees of the President of the Russian Federation.
Frantz Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the upper house’s committee for defense and security said the law stipulates the grounds, on a decision to revoke the previously granted citizenship can be taken.
In addition, the law spells out a simpler procedure for the issuance of residential permits or for granting citizenship to the residents of Ukraine who officially confirm their status of native speakers of the Russian language.
"The law says false personal data in an application for citizenship makes up a legal ground for revoking a previous decision on granting Russian citizenship," he said, adding that the scope of facts, which fall into the category of false evidence, includes encroachments on the pledge to observe the Constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation committed in the form of terrorist or extremist offenses.
These changes open up a new front of struggle with terrorists and their accomplices who got Russian citizenship with the aid of deception and then began to work against this country, Klintsevich said.
The law contains the text of the oath and makes the oath a condition to accepting Russian citizenship by everyone who is seeking to get a Russian passport and who has turned eighteen years old, which is the age of legal majority in this country.
"I, so-and-so, who accept the citizenship of the Russian Federation of my own free will and consciously, take the oath to observe the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation, to honor the rights and freedoms of its citizens, to fulfill the duties of a citizen of the Russian Federation, to defend its freedom and independence, to exercise loyalty to it, and to respect its culture, history and traditions," reads the text the oath.
According to the legislative amendments, the power to authorize the procedure for taking the oath belongs to the President of the Russian Federation.
A refusal to take the oath will entail a revocation of the order to grant Russian citizenship to an individual.
The same law lifts barriers to the accession to Russian citizenship for Ukrainians. It says, among other things, Russian residential permits or passports will be granted upon request to the individuals renouncing Ukrainian citizenship without any certifying documents from the relevant Ukrainian agencies.
"An individual can renounce Ukrainian citizenship by forwarding an application to an authorized state agency," the law says. ""A copy of the application certified by a notary public will serve as a confirmation that he or she is renouncing Ukrainian citizenship."
The law also retains the fundamental provisions on revoking the previous decisions to grant Russian citizenship in case a grantee has been sentenced for terrorism or for extremist activities.
However, an offender’s legal responsibility for such offenses will not affect his or her children or spouses if they were not involved in the crimes.