MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament, has adopted at a plenary session an amendment allowing foreigners to cross the state border into the country of their citizenship with an expired or defective document.

The amendment was approved during the second reading of a bill aimed at introducing a system of expulsion of foreign citizens who have no legal grounds to stay in Russia.

"A foreign citizen may be allowed to cross the state border into the country of his or her citizenship on the basis of a document confirming the identity of a foreign citizen and recognized as such in Russia. It may be expired or have technical defects, but it must belong to the foreign citizen and allow others to identify his or her identity," the amendment said.

In addition, the bill enshrines cases when a foreign citizen or a stateless person may not cross Russia’s state border. In particular, this is the case when such foreigners were banned from entering or leaving Russia. Such a ban will be in effect until it expires or is lifted. This will also be the case if a foreign citizen refuses to comply with a border authority’s demand to provide biometric personal data necessary for identification of a person, as well as when the risk of possible creation of a threat to the security of the state by a foreign citizen or a stateless person has been identified during border control.