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Transnistria requests simplified procedures to obtain Russian citizenship

The issue was earlier brought up by the State Duma committee for CIS affairs

TIRASPOL, June 1. /TASS/. The authorities of Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria ask Russia to simplify procedures to obtain Russian citizenship for the local residents born after Moldova had seceded from the then Soviet Union, the press service of Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky said on Friday after the issue was discussed at his meeting with Russian Ambassador Farit Mukhametshin.

"Granting Russian citizenship to Transnistrian residents born after 1992 is among the topical objectives," it said in a report. According to Krasnoselsky, discussion of the issue "will be continued with the new Russian government".

Earlier, Krasnoselsky drew attention to the situation in which young people seeking to obtain Russian passports, must first become citizens of Moldova, then renounce this citizenship and only after that apply for the Russian passport.

The issue was earlier brought up by the State Duma committee for CIS affairs, which recommended the government to speed up work on a bill to ease the rules of granting Russian citizenship to Transnistrian residents, to enable federal subsidies for multiple-child families for the Russian nationals in Transnistria, as well as to put them on the medical insurance system.

Moldova’s Transnistrian quagmire

The Transnistrian conflict erupted in March 1992 when initial clashes occurred between Moldovan police and Transnistrian militia near the city of Dubossary, followed by an outbreak of armed hostilities. By the summer, it had developed into a large-scale conflict in Bendery, where about 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands were wounded and ended up as refugees.

The civil war was brought to an end following a peace agreement signed in Moscow in July 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict zone.

Since then, they have been maintaining peace and calm in the region, together with their Moldovan and Transnistrian colleagues, thus allowing Chisinau and Tiraspol to conduct negotiations on settling the conflict regarding the breakaway republic.