OREANDA-NEWS. The Russian government is preparing a bill to simplify the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship. This was reported by Kommersant newspaper with a reference to the press service of the cabinet of ministers.

It was explained that they intend to invalidate the clause in the article of the law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”, according to which, in order to obtain a passport, it is necessary to renounce existing citizenship of another state. The bill will be sent to the State Duma after agreement with the presidential administration.

“We want to close this issue in the spring session, so that everyone who wants would be able to become Russian citizen,” Petr Tolstoy, a Vice Speaker of the lower house, said.

The head of the Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov claimed that other amendments to the law on citizenship may be adopted: the abolition of the norm on continuous residence of the applicant in Russia for five years and the paragraph on the need to confirm the legality of the sources of means of subsistence.