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Maria Gaidar files request to renounce Russian citizenship

Earlier, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed a decree to grant Maria Gaidar Ukrainian citizenship and personally handed out her Ukrainian passport

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Maria Gaidar has filed a petition renouncing her Russian citizenship, the Russian Interior Ministry’s press-center has told TASS.

"The Russian Interior Ministry’s migration affairs office has received a request from Russian citizen Maria Gaidar in which she declares her wish to terminate her Russian citizenship in connection with the acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship and reluctance to live and work in Russia," the ministry said.

The legal deadline for making a decision is 30 days.

Maria Gaidar is the daughter of Yegor Gaidar, an ideologist of liberal economic reforms in Russia in the 1990s. He was Russia’s acting prime minister from April to December 1992. He also held prominent state government posts under President Boris Yeltsin.

Maria Gaidar had been deputy of the Kirov Region’s governor, Nikita Belykh. In July 2015 she was appointed an adviser to the governor of Ukraine’s Odessa Region, Mikheil Saakashvili. On August 4, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed a decree to grant Maria Gaidar Ukrainian citizenship and personally handed out her Ukrainian passport. Gaidar declared her intention to renounce her Russian citizenship and reportedly wrote a corresponding statement in August 2015. There was no confirmation from the Federal Migration Service then, though.

On January 16, Saakashvili appointed Gaidar deputy chief of the Odessa Region’s state administration for social affairs. On May 10 she tendered her resignation but said she would take the position of Saakashvili’s adviser.