KS sent the case of a resident of Barnaul about citizenship for a revision
The Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court) of the Russian Federation decided on an unusual complaint of a native of the USSR, who lived in Germany from childhood, who asked him to consider him a citizen of the Russian Federation. The Russian consulate in Germany without problems issued him a passport of the Russian Federation, and in 2018 he also received an internal passport. But the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Supreme Court refused to consider it a Russian, indicating the absence of archival records of entry into citizenship. Now the KS found that the courts did not take into account both the “political and legal situation” of the early 1990s and the ten-year practice of recognition of the applicant as a citizen of the Russian Federation, deciding to revise his case.
A complaint to the Constitutional Court was filed by the 49-year-old resident of Barnaul Alexander Karpunin in February 2025. The applicant asked the court to recognize as unconstitutional Part 2 of Art. 64 and part 1 of Art. 328 of the Code of Administrative Procedure (CAS) of the Russian Federation. They say about the impossibility of challenging the circumstances of civil cases in the entry into force of court decisions on them – and it is argued that cassation can only be reviewed in case of a significant violation of the norms of procedural law.
The reason for contacting the Constitutional Court was the problem with obtaining a passport. In 1991, Mr. Karpunin, a child, went with his parents to Germany, where he registered at the consulate of Hamburg as a citizen of the USSR. In 2005 and 2012, he received a passport of the Russian Federation there. In 2018, the applicant was issued in Novosibirsk and an internal Russian passport.
Without problems, living “to two countries”, as described in the complaint, in 2021 he tried to change his passport in Barnaul in connection with the 45th anniversary. But the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Altai Territory considered that Alexander Karpunin is still not a citizen of the Russian Federation.
First, the Central Court of Barnaul in 2022 recognized the conclusion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, obliging to give the man documents. In March 2023, the decision was confirmed by the Altai Regional Court. But the document was never made a document. And in August 2023, the eighth cassation court canceled the decision of lower instances, establishing that Mr. Karpunin did not apply to the Russian authorities with a statement on the acquisition of citizenship – which means that there were no legal grounds for issuing passports. In December 2023, this position was supported by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Then Mr. Karpunin went to the Constitutional Court.
His complaint mentioned the land plot purchased in Barnaul (in 2010) and the apartment (in 2019) as an example of a “sustainable legal connection” with Russia, as well as the fact that the authorities for 15 years “repeatedly” confirmed his citizenship, issuing documents. Mr. Karpunin informed the KS that he also has German citizenship. The applicant asked him to give him a passport of the Russian Federation (see “Kommersant” dated March 3, 2025).
The KS Resolution says about citizenship as a “sustainable legal connection of a person with a state expressed in the aggregate of mutual rights and obligations”, which does not depend on relations with the state and the obligatory location in the country.
The Constitutional Court indicated the legitimacy of bureaucratic checks of Mr. Karpunin, but emphasized that the courts did not take into account the “political and legal situation” of the early 1990s, including the “lack of proper document management”. The authority noted that the applicant was recognized as a citizen of the Russian Federation for at least ten years, and his foreign citizenship is an insufficient basis “for the conclusion about the incompetence of him Russian”. The case of a resident of Barnaul was sent for a review. The contested norms of the CAS and the Law “On Citizenship” do not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation, noted in the Constitutional Court.
The senior lawyer of the law firm LUST Aleksey Emelianenko agrees that taking into account the plot of the case, Alexander Karpunin is a Russian citizen, since he was born in the USSR in the family of a citizen of the USSR, was registered with the embassy in Germany and repeatedly received Russian passports. Alina Laktionova, the head of the practice of private clients of the Law Firm, explained that the courts proceeded from the “formal approach”, and the applicant appealed to the actual circumstances – long -term residence in the country and repeatedly obtaining passports, which the instance was not fully taken into account.
