First Russian passport collection center launched in LPR

A Russian passport collection center, the first in the Lugansk People’s Republic, has opened in Lugansk,.

“Pursuant to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree dated April 24, 2019, the LPR Interior Ministry is implementing all the measures towards the exercise of our citizens’ right to obtain Russian citizenship,” LPR Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Paraskeyev said. “Thanks to the coordinated work of the LPR and Russian Interior Ministries, the first republican Russian passport collection center has opened in Lugansk.”

Several such centers will open elsewhere in the Republic, he added.

The Russian passport collection center is located at 18A Shevchenko Street, Lugansk.

Earlier, the LPR Head said that more than 284,000 LPR residents had already been granted Russian citizenship.

On April, 24, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree easing citizenship rules for residents of the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic. The first center for LPR residents seeking Russian citizenship opened in Lugansk on May 6; the first group of LPR residents received Russian passports on June 14. The Republic currently has Russian passport application offices in all towns and districts.  On April 24, 2020, Putin signed a law exempting Donbass Republics residents from paying the state fee for conferment of citizenship.

As of mid-June 2021, more than 250,000 LPR residents had obtained Russian citizenship using a fast track procedure. According to first deputy chairman of the Russian parliament committee on CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots Viktor Vodolatsky, over 600,000 Donbass residents had already obtained Russian citizenship using a fast track procedure. *i*s