On April 20, State Duma Deputy Andrei Kozenko called the refusal of Latvia to recognize Russian passports that were issued to residents of Crimea, as well as the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) insignificant.
On the eve of April 19, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Seimas, Rihards Kols, said that Latvia does not recognize Russian passports, which two years ago began to be issued to residents of Crimea, LPR and DPR, according to the news portal bb.lv.
“This decision is unlikely to significantly affect anything, except that the relatives living in these territories will not be able to see each other, but this will hardly stop Latvia in its Russophobic impulse. Although it is worth noting that a passport of a citizen of a particular country, issued in accordance with the legislation of this state, is a valid document, and not to recognize it only on the basis of place of residence, I emphasize – not citizenship, but precisely place of residence is a violation of all legal principles ” , – said the deputy Kozenko.
According to him, in the republics of Donbass, in fact, about 500 thousand residents were issued passports of the Russian Federation, while in Latvia it was considered that Russia was replenished with 900 thousand new citizens.
“For us (Crimeans – Ed.) And for the residents of Donbass, the main thing is the recognition of our homeland – the Russian Federation. And the confirmation of this is precisely the passport of a citizen of Russia. Recognition by other states is at least secondary for us, but in this case it has practically no meaning at all, ”the parliamentarian concluded.
Earlier, on April 24, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin, by his decree, simplified the procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. The document came into force on the day of its official publication. The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia then reported that residents of Donbass will be able to apply for Russian citizenship without renouncing Ukrainian citizenship, if they have the latter.