Ever More RF Residents Going to Court to Change Their Nationality from Russian to Something Else, ‘Vyorstka’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 22 – For decades, some residents of the Russian Federation have gone to court to change the nationality listed in their documents, some so they can emigrate, others so that they can claim benefits, and still a third group to preserve the historical roots of their families.

            That may come as a surprise to many given that Moscow has dropped the nationality line from the passport, but in fact, ethnic nationality is still recorded on many documents and is the basis for many official decisions (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/nationality-line-and-official.html).

            An important window on this issue is provided by cases in Russian courts where individuals have sought to change their nationality; and now the independent Vyorstka news portal has examined more than 200 recent cases (verstka.media/nerusskie-korni-kak-rossiyane-sudyatsya-chtoby-smenit-naczionalnost).

            Among its most important findings are that since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine in 2022, the number of such cases has increased; and “most often,” these are being brought by people who earlier had listed themselves as ethnic Russians but have changed their minds.

Perhaps, most striking of all however is Vyorstka’s discovery that those seeking to change from a non-Russian to Russian via the courts are “a great rarity” – although it is certainly possible that Putin officials are allowing them to do so without a decision of a court even though such a decision is required by law.

The largest number of RF citizens seeking to have their official nationality change are ethnic Germans who had earlier been listed as Russians but may want to emigrate, while the second largest are those who are members of the numerically small nationalities who benefit from such identities but were earlier reidentified as ethnic Russians.

Most applicants for a change in official nationality appear to receive approval, but Vyorstka recounts a number of cases in which individuals wanted to make a change but were turned down by Russian courts.