MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. More than 870,000 residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) have acquired Russian citizenship, Viktor Vodolatsky, First Deputy Chairman of Russian State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots said.

"There are four million of our compatriots living there, and 876,000 of them have Russian citizenship," he told reporters on Tuesday before a Duma meeting on the chamber's draft appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, proposed by CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) lawmakers, is being considered.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On determining, for humanitarian purposes, the category of people who have the right to apply for Russian citizenship in a simplified procedure" on April 24, 2019. The document simplifies the process of obtaining Russian passports for DPR and LPR residents. The passports are issued in the Rostov Region.