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President Vladimir Putin requested the chairmen of the upper and lower houses of the Russian parliament, Sergei Mironov and Boris Gryzlov, to begin the required work on this issue.

Given the special nature of relations between Russia and Ukraine that have developed over hundreds of years when both peoples lived in a unified state, given the close ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic ties between Russians and Ukrainians, the enormous number of family ties and mixed marriages, and also economic demands and the close cooperation that has emerged between Russian and Ukrainian enterprises, and given all the benefits in the broadest sense that the two countries stand to gain, Mr Putin believes it necessary to react to the issue of dual citizenship – an issue raised by both Ukraine’s leadership and its citizens.

Dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship is a question for the future, albeit a close future. But steps should already be taken today to settle the issue of registration and documents accepted for crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border, the President said at a meeting .

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told the President that Russian and Ukrainian citizens would be able to cross the border between their two countries using their internal passports as from January 1, 2005.