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The law stipulates, in particular, new mandatory requirements to be met by applicants for Russian citizenship, such as the fluent knowledge of Russian, legal sources of sustenance, and a longer period of uninterrupted residency in Russia (five instead of three years).

At the same time, the law provides an opportunity for a great number of compatriots to be granted Russian citizenship through a simplified procedure. This concerns, above all, people who used to be citizens of the USSR, who now live in former-Soviet countries, and who have not been granted other countries’ citizenship. The simplified procedure (which, for instance, does not require uninterrupted residency in Russia) also applies to children and the disabled whose parents or guardians are Russian citizens.