Russian minority in Estonia who accept Russian passports will be subject to deportation, Estonia’s Minister of the Interior, Lauri Läänemets, has warned, stressing that their residence permits would not be renewed either.
The warning came soon after Russia adopted the new law aiming to grant Russian citizenship on favourable terms to those residing abroad.
Russia’s move was considered by Läänemets an attempt to mobilise the pro-Russian minority in neighbouring countries by offering Russian citizenship, taking into account stateless persons from Estonia, according to a report from TVP World.
Basically, this concerns people in Estonia who are holders of grey passports who do not have citizenship—Russia is offering them citizenship on preferential terms. – Läänemets
Estonia’s grey passport, known as an Alien’s Passport, is a travel document issued to stateless persons residing in Estonia by the country’s Police and Border Guard Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which can also be used as an identity document.
Estonia’s Minister of the Interior considered Russia’s latest move aimed at creating instability not only in the Baltic States but also in all parts of the former Soviet Union.
Our answer here is very simple and unambiguous: We are working to ensure that if someone is going to take up this citizenship, they must understand that we have sanctioned the grounds on which Russian citizens can stay in Estonia today and the possibility of coming to live in Estonia permanently or temporarily. – Läänemets
He stressed that if they hold a residence permit in Estonia as holder of a grey passport and decide to renounce their grey passport status by acquiring Russian citizenship, they risk facing sanctions, and their residence permit is likely to be revoked.
Estonia is certainly not going to allow any increase in the number of Russian citizens. And that is just today’s logic – if citizenship is taken, it is hard to believe that they would be loyal to Estonia. So, my recommendation is that if anybody dares to think about it, even for some pragmatic reason, then I will personally work to have such a person’s residence permit revoked and them expelled from Estonia. – Läänemets
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Estonia also joined the list of other European countries imposing sanctions on Russia.
In March 2022, authorities in Estonia announced that they would suspend the e-residency program for Russians and Belarussians amid concerns that the scheme could be used to avoid sanctions, while in April last year, it stopped issuing new visas and residence permits for work or business to citizens of Russia and Belarus.
