Russian women marrying foreign men likely to be deprived of Russian citizenship

It is generally believed that a Russian woman will follow the love of her life to Siberia, the nether world, or the United States of America

Deputy of the Liberal and Democratic Party of Russia, Nikolai Kuryanovich, suggested the State Duma should consider amendments to the Law “About Citizenship.” The deputy believes that Russian women should be deprived of Russian citizenship, if they marry men from far-foreign states. The bill particularly runs that a Russian woman should be automatically deprived of her citizenship in such cases and will not have a right to retrieve citizenship in the future.

The parliament will most likely reject the deputy's idea: a Russian citizen cannot be deprived of his or her citizenship according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The image of a traditional Russian woman is usually portrayed on the base of literary and historical characters and figures. It is generally believed that a Russian woman will follow the love of her life anywhere, whether it is Siberia, the nether world, or the United States of America. However, any “Natasha Rostova” will obviously choose citizenship, if she faces “love or citizenship” choice.

On the other hand, deputy Nikolai Kuryanovich attracted the society's attention, albeit in such a peculiar way, to a highly important problem of the national extinction. According the State Statistics Committee, the population of Russia has reduced by 1.8 million people in comparison with the results of the population census conducted in 1989. Demographers say that there will be only 101 million people living in Russia by 2050.

The explanatory note to the above-mentioned bill runs: “The prohibition for Russian women's matrimonial relations with foreign men is based on the disastrous demographic situation in Russia. Contracting marriages with foreign men implies the loss of a considerable layer of women's population for the Russian society. This factor undermines the national security of the nation, reduces the number of marriages between native citizens of the Russian Federation and harms the gene pool of the nation.”

As a matter of fact, the “layer” is not that considerable, as the deputy tries to picture it. However, one has to acknowledge that a lot of young Russian women are willing to marry foreign men and improve their living standards. This tendency can not be changed either with a new law or with a change of weather conditions. Nevertheless, any woman knows what she needs to find in a man to be able to wed him and have his babies. She needs love, reliability and independence.

Deputy Nikolai Kuryanovich also suggests that those individuals acquiring real estate and other valuable assets abroad should be deprived of Russian citizenship too. According to the deputy, such acquisitions prove that a citizen does not see his or her future in Russia. “Transferring private capitals abroad is the basic reason to withdraw the Russian citizenship from a person,” the deputy explained.