MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Residents of the Zaporozhye Region of Ukraine will start to receive Russian passports in four to six weeks and the first questionnaires have already been sent to Russia, Alexey Selivanov, deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s regional branch, said in an interview with TASS.
"The first questionnaires, the first packages of documents have already been sent to the Russian Federation," he said. "In Russia, the granting of citizenship and obtaining a passport takes from one to three months. That means passports will start to be issued within a month or a month and a half, and we will hand them out here at the passport center."
Selivanov said, "already now more than 3,000 people wishing to obtain a Russian passport have been registered at one center." According to the official, people are lining up at the center for receiving documents, and up to 300 people are in the queue at a time.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing a simplified procedure for applying for Russian citizenship for residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine.