The prospect of signing a double citizenship agreement with Russia was the main argument of many people among those who in November 2005 voted for the constitutional reforms. Everybody thought that it was a solvable problem. Even Russian politicians who thought considering of the issue to be untimely, had never before argued for their position referring to the letter of the law. This is why Putin's phrase that Russian legislation does not allow double citizenship looks even more unexpected. The phrase is unexpected because only a year before, namely on October 30, 2004 the same Vladimir Putin, speaking before cameras of Russian federal TV channels and journalists announced that he had ordered chairmen of State Duma and Federation Council Boris Grizlov and Sergey Mironov to begin consultations with Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada concerning preparation of a double citizenship agreement between Russia and Ukraine. "Taking into account the special nature of relations between Russia and Ukraine, it would be expedient to return to this issue, reacting to the respective signal from Ukraine. I would ask you to get in touch with your colleagues in Ukraine next week and get down to the issue on a professional level", Vladimir Putin said at that time.

So how does it turn out that in case with Ukraine the law does not hinder Kremlin to sanction double citizenship, whereas in case of Armenia there arise insoluble difficulties? It is perfectly obvious that the problem is not in the law, but in Moscow's unwillingness to meet Yerevan halfway in such an important issue. Anyway, let us return to the law. The Constitution of Russian Federation does not exclude double citizenship. Several details concerning this issue are fixed in the law "On the citizenship of Russian Federation" adopted on May 31, 2002. The 6th article of the law says: "A citizen of Russian Federation, who also has another citizenship, is considered by Russian Federation only as a citizen of Russia, except cases fixed by an international agreement..." Thus, the statement that Russia does not accept double citizenship reminds of the well-known parable about the half-filled and half-empty glass. The document actually allows double citizenship to those Russians who are ready to fully carry out obligations before Russia. Those obligations include taxes, military service and other duties. However, the law allows signing intergovernmental agreements which will save from double taxation and other duties citizens of those countries with which Moscow wishes to have special relations. It follows that the problem is not at all in the law, as Vladimir Putin wants to show, but in the reluctance of Kremlin to have "special" relations with Armenia.

Well... this is the right of Moscow. Nevertheless it is noteworthy that Kremlin has given OK to establishing double citizenship with Israel, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Yerevan is not a less, if not more reliable ally for Moscow than Tel-Aviv, Ashkhabad or Dushanbe. Regardless of that Vladimir Putin easily removes from agenda the issue of double citizenship with Armenia. In Moscow they cannot but realize that in that way they let down first of all pro-Russian Armenian administration which spared no effort to achieve adoption of constitutional amendments. It is not a secret that refusal to constitutional restriction on double citizenship was first of all aimed at retaining human resources flowing to Russia. Today, there are as much Armenians living in Russia as in Armenia. And if initially it was known that Russia is against double citizenship the abrogation of constitutional restriction would actually make no sense.

There are little doubts that Moscow's refusal in the issue of double citizenship is one of the instruments of political influence on Yerevan. On the eve of the referendum I had an opportunity to clear up the attitude of high-ranking Russian officials from various branches of power. Already in October 2005, the President's administration held a stiff position in the current issue. In a private conversation the high-ranking official from the Kremlin administration stated that the Armenian-Russian agreement on double citizenship can become a reality in case Yerevan fulfills a series of preliminary conditions of political nature. The price of the question was not specified. Meanwhile, the approach of leaders of State Duma committees is different. Introducing the position of CIS affairs committee, deputy chairman of the committee Rifat Shaykhutdinov definitely said that the necessity of such an agreement is beyond any doubt, since Armenia is not just a neighbor country, but also a strategic partner of Russia. He expressed confidence that the lower chamber of the parliament will not object. Thus, it is quite clear that inside the Russian political elite there was no unity in this issue. Now, things already fall into their place and it looks like the idea of using the issue of double citizenship as a mechanism of political influence has achieved victory.