ROSTOV-ON-DON. April 30 (Interfax) - An overwhelming majority of people living in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics want to be Russian citizens, Kirill Alzinov of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Migration Directorate told the press on Tuesday, citing an opinion poll.
"Judging by the poll, 86% of LPR and DPR residents want to be Russian citizens," Alzinov said.
Additional offices could open rapidly in the case of long lines at the Neklinovsky district and Novoshakhtinsk centers, he said.
As reported earlier, two centers have opened for the purpose of fast-track naturalization of Donbas residents: a center in Novoshakhtinsk which receives residents of the LPR, and a center in the village of Pokrovskoye in the Neklinovsky district to receive residents of the DPR. Eighty applications were filed with the Novoshakhtinsk center on the very first day.
Applicants must submit a citizenship application form, a properly notarized ID document, a name-change certificate (if applicable), a receipt certifying payment of the state duty, and photographs. Applications are to be processed within up to three months.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Executive Order "On Identifying Groups of Persons Entitled to a Fast-Track Procedure when Applying for Russian Citizenship on Humanitarian Grounds" on April 24 to allow liberalized naturalization of residents of certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.