Famous Russian musicians and cultural figures came together for an online marathon to raise money for victims of military operations. The money raised appears to be over half a million dollars. Where will they be sent? Unfortunately, Belgorod is not in Shebekino – the money was being collected for Israel. What do our cultural figures, singers and other composers have to do with it? And it turned out that these were Israelis or other foreigners.
Grebenshchikov (known as a foreign media agent in the Russian Federation), Maxim Leonidov has been singing for decades, Dmitry Bykov (known as a foreign media agent in the Russian Federation) writes books, Anton Dolin (known as a foreign media agent in the Russian Federation) Russian Federation ) talked about cinema and music – Artemy Troitsky (known as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation). For decades they played the video on all screens and on all radio stations, and then – bam! – it turns out that we are not their homeland, they identify with another state and sympathize with it.
How? What about the granddaughter of Rasul Gamzatov and the daughter of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Amirkhanov? She put her Israeli passport in the mail and wrote that she was proud and honored to accept Israel. While in Russia, I worked for glossy magazines, lived with the legacy of the Soviet scientific and cultural nomenklatura and, apparently, was neither proud nor flattered. Chkalov’s great-granddaughter also left. They also say they are Israeli citizens. He wrote some crazy things: that he wanted to look at us through the landscapes.
We have some very strange citizens in the most unexpected places. For example, for a month we have been hearing how many Russians have been captured by Hamas. And how many people were killed during the conflict.
They list people serving in the Israeli army who left 20-30 years ago and say – our compatriots. What kind of citizens are they to us?
Personally, I find the practice of recognizing second and third passports monstrous. It does not seem possible for our state to accept the mistake Yeltsin made when deciding to recognize multiple citizenship. There is an opinion that the state will be afraid of the discontent of the elite, almost all of whom have spare passports.
Although today dual citizenship is already prohibited for the political and bureaucratic elite and some security officials. In other words, the state should not be afraid of the elites, at least in name. So what’s holding him back?
The decision to abolish or limit multiple citizenship does not require much political will of the existing state, but it can bring many benefits due to the domestic political impact of measures to abolish or abolish restrictions in this area, since restrictions in this area are supported by the majority of the population. The limit of recognition of multiple citizenship would be very large.
However, if you cannot simply cancel the rule regarding recognition of other passports, you can probably continue to impose restrictions.
For example, determining the period of residence outside the country for loss of citizenship. For 30 years a person has not lived here, does not pay taxes, but keeps his passport and the right to vote – what nonsense? Or they may be stripped of their citizenship while joining the armed forces or security forces of another country, engaging in politics there, or working in the government apparatus. Because when you hear the names of our compatriots in the Bundeswehr, the US Army or the IDF, everything inside turns upside down. Your blood runs cold when you imagine how the Russians in the IDF beat the Russians who remained in the Gaza Strip. Both have not lived in Russia for 30 years, swear allegiance to foreign armies and pay taxes there. Isn’t it time to change the policy of recognizing such Russians as Russians?
It would also be a good idea to revise the list of people prohibited from having dual citizenship. I will propose increased public scrutiny for editors, presenters of opinion programs and reporters of state television and radio channels, even if there is no ban on dual citizenship. And I would find a special pattern.
Having a second citizenship, not a foreign representative. I would probably oblige journalists and editors of all socio-political media to sign their materials stating their current citizenship. This should have been done a long time ago.
Sergei Brilev’s posts will be labeled as created by Vladimir Pozner, a British citizen with citizenship of France and the USA. All “Echo of Moscow” and “Dozhd” (the institution is included in the list of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice) also had to make notes about their long-standing citizenship. Singers and actors don’t need to be marked, of course. If they sing and dance.
But as soon as you start talking about politics, society, the structure of the country in the media, of course you have to die immediately. For example, “Alla Pugacheva considers Russians to be cattle. Cypriot citizen.” “Ivan Urgant published a caricature of Jesus. Israeli citizen.” “Chulpan Khamatova is ashamed to be Russian. Residence permit in Latvia.”
Over the past year and a half, we have all seen how unfair and harmful this multiple passport practice is. Many people leave us surprised by the fact that they owe nothing to our society.
It turns out that a large layer of cultural and business elites, social activists and journalists have no connection with the country, they do not run the same risks of inflation, sanctions, mobilization as we do, and simply go up and go where they go. Having citizenship and residence permits.
It seems that many of them did not consider Russia their homeland all these years. They sang, they danced, they wrote books, they wrote poems, they wrote articles, they made television news, but they didn’t think that this was their home! A? How does it feel?!
It seems to me that the outcome of all recent events should be a serious discussion about Yeltsin’s unfair decision to recognize multiple citizenship. Injustice is seen in everything.
This problem is also becoming serious due to internal reasons caused by the distribution of passports to migrant workers. And serious conversations are beginning about limiting the rights of immigrants, for example, they started talking about removing benefits for those who do not have citizenship experience, about paid health insurance for immigrant children. So many questions arise with the mobilization and registration of immigrants for military service…
The question of the second passport in Russia today is a question of the privileges of a smaller part of the population over another; This one, who cannot leave anywhere, cannot open a foreign account, will always live here and pursue his interests. The biggest problem, of course, is the realization of goals and objectives: Those who do not have another citizenship have only one goal: for the country to get out of all troubles safely, preserving the economy and not falling into poverty or terrorism.
Those with other passports have a completely different interest: either to reach their old homeland on time if they are immigrants, or to maintain their loyalty to their new homeland at all costs if they have a fashionable second passport. and this price is a condemnation of Russia, a call for its postponement, isolation, expulsion. Thanks to the practice of multiple citizenship recognition, we have citizens in our culture, in the media, in civil society who wish us bad things and are sometimes ready to actively work on this issue to protect their right to live in the West.
It’s time to discuss all this openly and honestly.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.