MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. A workgroup in Russia’s State Duma in charge of supervising adoption of an oath for foreigners accepting Russian citizenship has received 26 versions of the text of the oath, Pavel Krasheninnikov, the chairman of the Duma committee for state construction and legislation told reporters on Thursday.
"We got twenty drafts of the oath before the session and another six drafts during the session," he said. The final text of the oath will be drafted on the basis of these proposals.
Deputy Vladimir Vassilyev, the chief of the United Russia parliamentary caucus mentioned the deadlines for preparing the final text. "We do have a deadline but it shouldn’t be detrimental for quality," he said.
The Duma announced a competition for the text of the citizenship acceptance oath. It gave an opportunity to send in proposals to everyone willing to contribute.
Earlier reports said the draft was to be ready by July 3 as part of preparations for a second reading of a bill that would revoke a resolution on acceptance of citizenship to the individuals convicted for terrorism.
On June 6, President Vladimir Putin told Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin it would make sense to introduce a ceremony of giving an oath of allegiance by the individuals accepting Russian citizenship.
Volodin said in response the Duma would scrutinize the experience gained by foreign countries in this respect and Russia’s own historical traditions and would submit a text of the oath to the President "so that a person accepting citizenship of the Russian Federation could realize the responsibility linked to his or her decision.".