İçeriğe geçmek için "Enter"a basın

Vladimir Putin Disappointed Armenians

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.02.2006 GMT+04:00

The Russian President supposes that the laws of his country do not
allow signing a double citizenship agreement with Armenia, whereas
in case of Ukraine the same laws did not create troubles.

On Tuesday, during the traditional press conference the President
of Russia made rather an unexpected statement. Answering the
question of an Armenian journalist concerning prospects of signing an
Armenian-Russian agreement on double citizenship, Vladimir Putin said
that the "Russian legislation does not allow double citizenship". Thus,
"citizens of other countries who wish to become Russian citizens
should refuse from the citizenship they have and take up Russian
citizenship". In such a way, Putin destroyed the hopes that permission
of double citizenship will enable to solve the problems of thousands
of Russian Armenians who do not want to break of connections with
their motherland.

The prospect of signing a double citizenship agreement with Russia
was the main argument of many people among those who in November 2005
voted for the constitutional reforms. Everybody thought that it was a
solvable problem. Even Russian politicians who thought considering of
the issue to be untimely, had never before argued for their position
referring to the letter of the law. This is why Putin's phrase that
Russian legislation does not allow double citizenship looks even
more unexpected.

The phrase is unexpected because only a year before, namely on October
30, 2004 the same Vladimir Putin, speaking before cameras of Russian
federal TV channels and journalists announced that he had ordered
chairmen of State Duma and Federation Council Boris Grizlov and Sergey
Mironov to begin consultations with Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada concerning
preparation of a double citizenship agreement between Russia and
Ukraine. "Taking into account the special nature of relations between
Russia and Ukraine, it would be expedient to return to this issue,
reacting to the respective signal from Ukraine. I would ask you to
get in touch with your colleagues in Ukraine next week and get down to
the issue on a professional level", Vladimir Putin said at that time.

So how does it turn out that in case with Ukraine the law does not
hinder Kremlin to sanction double citizenship, whereas in case of
Armenia there arise insoluble difficulties? It is perfectly obvious
that the problem is not in the law, but in Moscow's unwillingness
to meet Yerevan halfway in such an important issue. Anyway, let us
return to the law. The Constitution of Russian Federation does not
exclude double citizenship. Several details concerning this issue
are fixed in the law "On the citizenship of Russian Federation"
adopted on May 31, 2002. The 6th article of the law says: "A citizen
of Russian Federation, who also has another citizenship, is considered
by Russian Federation only as a citizen of Russia, except cases fixed
by an international agreement..." Thus, the statement that Russia
does not accept double citizenship reminds of the well-known parable
about the half-filled and half-empty glass. The document actually
allows double citizenship to those Russians who are ready to fully
carry out obligations before Russia. Those obligations include taxes,
military service and other duties. However, the law allows signing
intergovernmental agreements which will save from double taxation and
other duties citizens of those countries with which Moscow wishes to
have special relations. It follows that the problem is not at all in
the law, as Vladimir Putin wants to show, but in the reluctance of
Kremlin to have "special" relations with Armenia.

Well... this is the right of Moscow. Nevertheless it is noteworthy
that Kremlin has given OK to establishing double citizenship
with Israel, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Yerevan is not a less,
if not more reliable ally for Moscow than Tel-Aviv, Ashkhabad or
Dushanbe. Regardless of that Vladimir Putin easily removes from agenda
the issue of double citizenship with Armenia. In Moscow they cannot
but realize that in that way they let down first of all pro-Russian
Armenian administration which spared no effort to achieve adoption
of constitutional amendments. It is not a secret that refusal
to constitutional restriction on double citizenship was first of
all aimed at retaining human resources flowing to Russia. Today,
there are as much Armenians living in Russia as in Armenia. And if
initially it was known that Russia is against double citizenship the
abrogation of constitutional restriction would actually make no sense.

There are little doubts that Moscow's refusal in the issue of double
citizenship is one of the instruments of political influence on
Yerevan. On the eve of the referendum I had an opportunity to clear up
the attitude of high-ranking Russian officials from various branches
of power. Already in October 2005, the President's administration
held a stiff position in the current issue. In a private conversation
the high-ranking official from the Kremlin administration stated
that the Armenian-Russian agreement on double citizenship can
become a reality in case Yerevan fulfills a series of preliminary
conditions of political nature. The price of the question was not
specified. Meanwhile, the approach of leaders of State Duma committees
is different. Introducing the position of CIS affairs committee,
deputy chairman of the committee Rifat Shaykhutdinov definitely
said that the necessity of such an agreement is beyond any doubt,
since Armenia is not just a neighbor country, but also a strategic
partner of Russia. He expressed confidence that the lower chamber of
the parliament will not object. Thus, it is quite clear that inside
the Russian political elite there was no unity in this issue. Now,
things already fall into their place and it looks like the idea of
using the issue of double citizenship as a mechanism of political
influence has achieved victory.

Yorumlar kapatıldı.