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Bureaucratic mess strips natives of citizenship
Published: 27 July, 2009, 10:46
Edited: 03 November, 2009, 20:35
Thousands of Russians find themselves stripped of all rights and benefits in their own country because their names get lost in a paper trail while they try to replace their internal passports.
I know I'm an outsider in this mess, but I can't help thinking, why have an internal passport at all? Yes, the Soviet system used them, but aren't there other forms of identification? Is there still an effort by the authorities to restrict movement of citizens within the country? Or is it "left over" from the chaos of the 1990s.
what is it all about.
Why would the Russian people need an internal passport to prove that they are a russian citizen? When a child is born a birth certificate is issued and this should serve as evidence of citizenship for life. A lost birth certificate can be replaced, so I don't understand why anyone would ever need a passport, unless they were leaving the country. There must be more to the story.
I'd like to thank you for touching on this very delicate subject. I myself have been stripped of my passport a year ago after 3 years of waiting for the reply from the service that had given me the document in 2002. In 2008 they told me they hadn't found any one with my name in their database.A year ago after graduating from the university I gave my passport away.For 11 months already I have been without any valid document and as a result can't start my career.But I have been lucky to start volunteering for the Civil Assistance Committee you mentioned in your article and to get legal advice there.Right now I am waiting for the so called "vid na zhitelstvo" (residence permit) and only then will apply for citizenship. At times I felt really low like Oksana in your article thinking that my life is ruined and my future career will be greatly damaged by this paper mess.But being an optimist by nature, I saw the positive side to the whole situation. But for this mess, I wouldn't have learnt so much about the legal system in terms of immigrants in Russia and elsewhere. I have become stronger mentally, more interested in knowing and defending my own rights and have seen people whose life conditions are far worse then mine.