MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Russia’s Federation Council, or upper house of parliament, has approved a bill making amendments to the Law on Russian Citizenship, stipulating that any person dodging military registration will have their Russian citizenship revoked.
Under current law, persons can lose their Russian citizenship if they provide knowingly false information about his or her commitments to honor the Russian constitution and its laws, which constitutes a crime posing a threat to Russia’s national security. The bill supplements this norm with a provision saying that non-observance of Russia’s laws may include non-registering with a military commissariat.
The document also binds interior agencies to refer to the military register data about men who have been granted Russian citizenship before they take their citizenship oaths. These amendments supplement the law on the military duty and military service.
According to the explanatory note to the law, foreigners and persons without citizenship who want to be granted Russian passports must register with a military commissariat servicing their area. However, according to the authors, "there have been reports that after being granted Russian citizenship such persons are dodging their military duties." "Such cases don’t sit well with the population. This stirs negative social and political sentiments, undermines the credibility of the institution of citizenship, promotes a disregard for the law, including among the so-called ‘new citizens,’" the document says.