Russian Federation Council passes law tightening immigration control

On August 2, the Federation Council (upper house) of Russia passed a law to strengthen state control in the field of immigration, including the introduction of new deportation regulations.

The new law contains a provision entitled “On the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation”, which sets out the obligations that foreigners must comply with “to maintain the right to enter the Russian Federation and stay (reside) on the territory of the Russian Federation”.

Foreign citizens are obliged to refrain from activities that are harmful to the interests of the Russian Federation, to comply with the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation, including: to respect the environment, natural resources, material and cultural values ​​of the Russian Federation; to respect the diversity of regional and ethnic lifestyles of the people of the Russian Federation; not to impede the exercise of rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, the activities of Russian state bodies and officials...

Foreign citizens in the Russian Federation must respect traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, including the concept of marriage, comply with the requirements not to promote non-traditional sexual relations and distort historical facts about the feats of the Soviet people in defending the Fatherland and their contribution to the victory over fascism; avoid financing or facilitating activities that violate the above provisions and entice other citizens to participate.

The law introduces new rules for deportation, which apply to foreign citizens who do not have the right to legally reside in the Russian Federation due to the expiration of their temporary residence in Russia or the expiration of their migration documents, the cancellation of their temporary residence permit, residence permit, or due to illegal actions.

This regulation restricts a number of rights for foreign citizens residing illegally in the Russian Federation, as well as significantly expands the measures of control over their stay in Russia.

According to the law, such subjects will be included in the list of controlled persons, the agencies of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs will provide this list to both government bodies and any legal entities and individuals.

At the same time, the law also proposes to reduce the temporary stay of foreign citizens to 90 days in a year (currently 90 days in 180 days).

The proposal states that the purpose of the new legislative amendments is to strengthen control over foreigners in the Russian Federation as well as to encourage foreigners to legalize their stay on the territory of the Russian Federation.