Over the past year, more than 12 thousand Russians renounced their citizenship. The difficult procedure of divorce from the Motherland still makes the hairs of some former compatriots stand out. Fontanka asked them to share their experience.
But there are three important conditions.
Firstly , you cannot have unfulfilled obligations to the country - for example, tax debts. Secondly , you need to be clean before the law - not to be accused in a criminal case or convicted by a court verdict that is subject to execution. Thirdly , the most important thing is that you must already have another citizenship or guarantees for its acquisition: a marriage certificate with a foreigner, permanent residence, or so on.
Package of documents for renunciation of Russian citizenship
First of all, you will need to fill out an application for renunciation of citizenship. Applications are now accepted for consideration exclusively through a special Internet service of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You cannot fill it out by hand. In the application form you will need to describe your career path over the past five years, including studies, with addresses. It is advisable to indicate the series and number of the passport you used to leave Russia. After filling out the document, you need to print it in two copies. All.
You will need a birth certificate with a copy and a valid passport with a copy of the pages with personal data. An important nuance: there must be at least 6 months left before the passport expires. Otherwise you will have to get a new one first. In addition, if the applicant has changed his last name, first name or patronymic, then he is obliged to exchange his passport for a new name and then renounce his citizenship.
If your full name has changed, then you will need a certificate of change of surname, name or patronymic, Russian or foreign, certified with an “Apostille” stamp with a translation into Russian, certified by a notary in Russia or at the consulate. You will also need a marriage certificate or an extract from the family register.
You will need a document confirming deregistration at your place of residence in Russia. We are talking about a stamp in an internal passport or a certificate from a department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If you can’t get them, you will have to fill out one of two applications: about deregistration at the place of residence in Russia or a statement about the lack of registration at the place of residence in Russia. Of course, everything must be certified by a notary in Russia or at the Consulate General.
If you managed to collect and certify everything, then all that remains is to pay 68 euros for the services and wait. The application approval period is up to 6 months if it follows a simplified procedure - that is, you already have citizenship of another country or permanent residence. If not yet, then up to 12 months.
Personal experience of renouncing Russian citizenship
The son of the former general director of the Izhmash group of enterprises, Denis Gorodetsky, lost his Russian citizenship at the end of 2022. On October 24, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving his application. On his social networks, Gorodetsky briefly described the procedure: “In the best Russian traditions of rudeness, with throwing documents and shouting: “What have you brought me here?!” So what, according to the law! I have instructions! How to do it? I have no idea! I don’t give any information!” and in that spirit."
Maria Zvantseva, who lives in Germany, added that almost nothing has changed in 11 years: “a portal to the realm of absurdity, cold rudeness and humiliation.”
“What have we endured with our unfortunate fellow citizens, hmm. The famous queues at the gate - where are the crowds for vodka and sugar? We arrived in Bonn and Frankfurt at six or seven in the morning, sometimes our teeth were already chattering in the cold at night, we were making lists, we were choking, and once, with a child in my arms, I even pushed away a man who was pushing ahead,” Maria recalls. “The room is filled with whining children, wailing, barely hobbling old people - like on a refugee ship. Of all the amenities, there is a two-stall toilet, no cooler, no comfortable chairs, even for the elderly. Boorish tone, raised voices on both sides of the window, often swearing and crying - when you suddenly need a document for which to fly 5 thousand km “home”, to look for a long-defunct office or registry office. And everything personally, in triplicate, gods, poison to me, poison..."
The catharsis of the ordeal came on the day her family renounced citizenship.
“We prepared for parting with our native state as if we were negotiating with terrorists - without any room for error. A complex package of documents was collected and certified in two countries. We were sent, of course, to the most disgusting, Jesuitically ruthless consular officer, we knew him - and understood that he was their best professional, unlike others - a qualified specialist. Obliged to hand us over to the German state according to all the rules.
So, probably for the first time in his practice - this was noticeable from his distorted face - he received impeccably prepared papers. For each “now show me,” we silently laid out the required identification, a completed form, a certified certificate, an unexpired extract with the correct stamp. When everything, down to the last piece of paper, was presented, he, with a muzzle green with hatred, gave us five certificates of renunciation of Russian citizenship,” said Zvantseva.
Maria noted that a number of her friends retain it purely from a practical approach.
“Those of our acquaintances and friends who had everyday reasons did not renounce citizenship. For example, the need to constantly visit elderly parents or manage real estate, unsold apartments,” she told Fontanka.
She herself went to Moscow with a visa only once.
Former secular journalist Bozhena Rynska (Malashenko) announced the start of the procedure for renouncing Russian citizenship in September 2022. But she still lives with him.
She encountered difficulties in obtaining a tax certificate. Rynska ordered it from the Federal Tax Service office, but the paper arrived without a stamp, and the consulate did not accept it. Then she ordered another certificate - by mail to the Federal Tax Service, and a second one - at the State Services in the MFC in Moscow. As a result, the first one did not come at all. The second was set for September 19. But on that day there was a glitch at the MFC, and they couldn’t issue anything.
“I called the head of the Ramenki MFC. She promised to call me personally when everything was ready. I kept up the dynamism. And as if to mock me, taxes arrived in the evening for 90 thousand for my entire property. That is, how to get the money, they are right there, standing there chattering their teeth. But how can they give me a certificate that everything has been paid, they have their paws,” Bozena summed up.
As a result, as Rynska told Fontanka as of February 2023, she nevertheless applied for renunciation of citizenship at the Russian consulate in Latvia - the papers were collected.
“We needed a certificate of payment of all taxes, we had to check out of the apartment, we had to provide a birth certificate. But so far there is no answer. I was not interested in my status, since new courts were piling up on me, I need to be present at them, and for this I need a Russian passport. Therefore, I decided that I would let everything take its course and decide in due time in the best way for me. I noticed that when I don’t hit the wall with my forehead, everything goes as planned,” she noted.
In total, 12,306 people renounced Russian citizenship last year, the Department of Information and Press of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told RBC based on data from diplomatic missions and consular offices of the country abroad. This is not a record. For comparison, in 2019, Russian citizenship was renounced not much more often - 4,356 times.
