How to renounce Russian citizenship?

It is not a secret for anyone that today the majority of citizens of Russia in the territory of Ukraine are in an illegal status due to the prohibition, fixed in the normative legal acts, on the registration of any documents for the citizens of this country by the units of the migration service. All those who came to Ukraine legally before the start of the full-scale war stayed here. Some of them simply accepted this situation and are waiting for changes in the legislation regarding the regulation of legal status, but the majority choose their rights in various ways.

Even those citizens of Russia who, before the start of hostilities, legally obtained Ukrainian citizenship in the form of a certificate of registration of a person as a citizen of Ukraine and were documented by a temporary certificate of a citizen of Ukraine, cannot fully fulfill their obligation to Ukraine regarding the registration of renunciation of Russian citizenship and complete the procedure for registration of Ukrainian citizenship. The reason is always the same - Russia does not "release" anyone from its citizenship.

The legislation provides that if there are reasons independent of the person for not receiving a document on the termination of foreign citizenship, a declaration of renunciation of foreign citizenship can be submitted to the migration service. But the migration service does not accept it, as it does not see the existence of grounds for this.

Having an official refusal from the authorities of the migration service to accept the declaration of renunciation of foreign citizenship, Russians turn to the court with a request to oblige the migration service to take a certain action. The chances are usually minimal, since it is necessary to prove the presence of factors that do not make it possible to leave the Russian citizenship or the existence of objective circumstances that do not make it possible to take such an action (for example, rejection of an application to leave the Russian citizenship, total disregard during a personal reception at the Russian Embassy in the neighboring states of the world on the issue, lack of answers to official appeals of Russian citizens addressed to the authorized bodies on the territory of Russia, etc.).

But, according to the specialists of the legal company "Prikhodko&Partners", you can increase your chances of obtaining a positive court decision regarding the obligation of the migration service to accept declarations on the termination of foreign citizenship by issuing a certificate of persecution, which is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The presence of this document confirms the fact of persecution due to political beliefs of a citizen of the Russian Federation in the country of his citizenship.

When analyzing court practice, we see that the presence of this certificate in most cases gives a plus when making a court decision.