The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has published a draft order, which describes the procedure for notifying the Russian authorities about the receipt by a citizen of the Russian Federation of citizenship or a residence permit of another state.
According to him, now it will be possible to do this not only in Russia, as before, but also in the diplomatic mission or consulate of the Russian Federation in the country of residence. A citizen of Russia is obliged to notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the acquisition of citizenship of another state within 60 days, but earlier it was necessary to be on the territory of the Russian Federation, or to do so 30 days after entering Russia.
Some media outlets hastened to conclude that the 30-day rule is no longer valid, and it will be necessary to notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within 60 days, regardless of the place of residence. But the new federal law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation", adopted in April 2023, stipulates a similar rule – the Russian authorities must be notified no later than 60 days after arrival in the Russian Federation, and failure to notify while staying outside Russia is not considered a violation. The law comes into force on October 28, 2023.
However, as lawyer Andrey Fedorkov explains to The Insider, Article 11 of the law states that it only applies to a notification of obtaining a second citizenship, but not a residence permit in another country.
Fedorkov explains what this can lead to:
Article 11 of the new federal law, which comes into force on October 28, 2023, contains a clause that you can report the acquisition of foreign citizenship after entering the Russian Federation. Nothing is said about a residence permit and other documents for the right to permanent residence in another country.
Here, of course, the question arises of what changes will be made to the legislation in the future (if any), and how all this will be interpreted by the courts.
So far, it literally turns out that Russian citizens will be required to submit notifications to Russian diplomatic missions abroad within 60 calendar days upon receipt of a residence permit and a document on the right to permanent residence. If they did not do this, it turns out that they have not already fulfilled this obligation, since when entering the Russian Federation, you can only report acquired foreign citizenship. That is, this rule only applies if you have citizenship.
How this will be interpreted, I repeat, is the question. In a literal reading, it looks a little absurd, but it is.