OREANDA-NEWS. During the first quarter of 2020, more than 161 thousand people received Russian citizenship, which is 2.5 times more in comparison with the same period of the last year. This was reported by analysts of the international audit and consulting service FinExpertiza. The statistic data was given by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

A year earlier, by April, 63.2 thousand people had been received Russian citizenship. The issuance of Russian passports to foreigners has been continuously growing since 2017, FinExpertiza representatives note. In recent years, an increasing number of people are receiving Russian passports: in 2015 – 209.8 thousand, in 2016 – 265.3 thousand, in 2017 – 257.8 thousand, in 2018 – 269.4 thousand, over the past 2019 – 497.8 thousand.

Nikita Mkrtchyan, associate professor at the Institute for Demography of the Higher School of Economics, noted that if the current pace of issuing passports continues throughout 2020, the final figure may be a record.