Russian human rights commissioner investigating cases of citizenship revocation of Crimean residents
The problem of revoking Russian citizenship of many people in the Crimea and Sevastopol can be solved within the framework of passport amnesty, as stated to journalists in Sevastopol by Russia's Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova, Kryminform reports.
"We have cases where the citizenship of people who live in Sevastopol and the Crimea has been revoked and I have received these appeals. I, in turn, appealed to the Russian government to conduct a comprehensive verification of these situations," said Moskalkova.
The day before the ombudsman discussed this issue with the head of the Russian government of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov.
"I think that a comprehensive check is necessary. I will be in favor of passport amnesty. If a passport was issued to a person in violation of certain technical details and that person wants to remain a citizen of the Russian Federation, then it seems to me that it is necessary to reissue the passport and give this person the opportunity to get a new passport," Moskalkova says.
According to her, during the issuance of Russian passports to Crimeans there were abuses by the employees of the Federal Migration Service, and some were convicted as a result.
"I will deal with this situation as well. According to one data report, there are 4,000 citizens whose passports were confiscated. According to other sources, there were 2,000. A list will be compiled. I sent an appeal to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and I will instruct my employees to conduct a check together with law enforcement agencies," the Russian ombudsman said.
Earlier, the State Duma Deputy from the Crimea, Pavel Shperov, discussed the mass revocations of Russian citizenship from Crimeans. According to him, more than 3,200 Crimeans lost their Russian passports, which were received after the Russian annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
Shperov claims that these Crimeans spent most of their lives in the Crimea, had a registration at their place of residence, but on March 18, 2014, they were not on the peninsula.