OREANDA-NEWS. The State Duma of the Russian Federation passed in the third reading a bill abolishing the exam for Ukrainians and Belarusians to obtain the status of native speakers of the Russian language. Thus, the law provides that citizens of Ukraine and Belarus can be recognized as native speakers of Russian if they or their direct relatives live or previously permanently resided in Russia, or in the territory of the USSR or the Russian Empire (within the Russian state border).

The lower house of the parliament also took the initiative, according to which a single deadline for considering applications for admission to Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure will be introduced: up to three months from the date of filing. At the moment, applications can be considered for six months.

Earlier, it became known that a draft law on simplifying the procedure for accepting citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan into Russian citizenship would be submitted in the near future.