The Yabloko faction will not support adoption of the draft law "On Citizenship in the Russian Federation" to be discussed today by the State Duma in the second reading. Yabloko thinks that any further restrictions on the procedure for providing Russian citizenship will have a number of negative consequences.

Deputy of the Yabloko faction Sergei Mitrokhin stressed that the adoption of such a law Russia "virtually erects a barrier to the inflow of human resources required first of all to resolve economic and demographic problems. Developed countries encourage targeted immigration, while at the same time Russia adopts a law that would deprive the state of a real tool for implementing a targeted immigration policy."

"The law also considerably worsens the situation for Russia's former compatriots", said Mitrokhin. - We think that Russia has moral obligations before the citizens of the former USSR, irrespective of their nationality."

Speaking about Yabloko's principle arguments against the law, Mitrokhin also stressed that the draft law was "openly lobbyist". "The interests of the Interior Ministry, which will, if the law is adopted by the Duma, has significant opportunities to set additional bureaucratic procedures, are visible in the text," stated Mitrokhin. It is also known that some deputies from the centrist factions of the Duma proposed that applicants for Russian citizenship should be tested on their knowledge of the Russian language and the Constitution of the RF and, presumably, the bureaucrats from the Interior Ministry will be responsible for investigating this knowledge.