Cabinet of Ministers prepares draft law on criminal liability for holding Russian passport

UKRAINSKA PRAVDA — WEDNESDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2022, 16:24

Ukraine has prepared a draft law that provides for criminal responsibility for obtaining a Russian passport in the temporarily occupied territories; the Cabinet of Ministers called for this.

Source: Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories

Details: Experts from the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Security Service, the Ministry of Reintegration, human rights defenders and people's deputies have jointly prepared a draft law that introduces criminal liability for:

• acquisition of citizenship or obtaining a Russian passport by state officials or representatives of local self-government in the absence of signs of high treason;

• propaganda, public appeals, and coercion to act correspondingly;

• restriction of the rights of people who have not received citizenship or passports from the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories noted that obtaining a Russian passport in the temporarily occupied territories is justified only if a person thus tries to return to the territory controlled by Ukraine through Russia and third countries.

Previously: 

• On 11 July, president of the aggressor country Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a simplified procedure for granting citizenship in Russia to all Ukrainians.

• Russian occupiers began to resort to various gimmicks to force people to get a Russian passport in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

• The President's Office said that issuing Russian passports to residents of the occupied territories is meaningless because this passport is not recognised worldwide.

• Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk advised residents of the occupied territories not to assume Russian citizenship.

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