For a month now, there have been discussions around the amendment to the Lex Ukrajina law, “Special Rules for Acquiring Citizenship” of the Czech Republic for Russian citizens residing here, initiated by Martin Exner, a deputy from the STAN party. He has been supported by the Minister of the Interior, Vít Rakušan, the BIS, and the Security Council. For a month, Russians hoping to obtain citizenship have been trying to understand what this amendment actually means for them.
Martin Exner casually insults people by calling them matryoshkas. In recent months, the media has launched a whole series of “spy adventures” involving Russians in the Czech Republic. While citizens of the country begin to suspect their Russian neighbor of being an KGB agent, it turns out that the real matryoshka is the amendment itself.
The hidden main goal and problem of the amendment lie not in the requirement to renounce Russian citizenship before obtaining Czech citizenship. Although renouncing Russian citizenship is often a serious challenge for thousands of Russians living in the Czech Republic. The main problem is the complete freeze of all citizenship applications submitted by Russians from the moment the law comes into effect. This follows from § 7h and § 7u of the amendment, which are supposed to be in effect as long as § 2 is in effect. After the law is enacted, § 2 is supposed to remain in effect indefinitely.
From his lofty position, Exner offers a number of exceptions for Russians, under which they will still be able to obtain citizenship in the same manner as other foreigners. For example, children under 15 years old (however, almost all applications for citizenship for children without parents are rejected, according to MVCR), dissidents, political refugees, outstanding athletes, and scientists.
According to Mr. Exner and the Security Council, this amendment is intended to safeguard national security, but let’s figure out if this is truly the case. Or are we simply being led by the nose for the sake of populism, while simultaneously insulting and manipulating public opinion, inciting feelings of hatred and danger among fellow citizens, and discriminating against an entire national minority? Let us remind you that the Czech Republic has ratified the Human Rights Convention. According to this convention, discrimination against national minorities is unacceptable in any European Union country.
The main argument of the amendment’s initiators is that Russians or people hired by the Russian Federation have committed sabotage on Czech territory. Additionally, there is the claim that Russians could be spies of the Russian intelligence service, have some mythical debts to the Russian secret service (a fake), and must serve in the Russian army, which is impossible for a Czech citizen. Typically, boys and men from Russia who do not wish to serve in the Russian army are precisely the ones looking for another country and another citizenship to avoid paying this “debt” to their homeland.
It is also worth noting that according to statistics for 2023, more than half (56.6%) of Russians in the Czech Republic are women, and children under 15 years old make up 9.5%.
Let’s start with the fact that to qualify for citizenship, any foreigner must meet a number of requirements. For instance, they must have lived in the country for a long time, pass a language exam and an exam on Czech realities, should have pristine criminal record, and not receive any social benefits or assistance from the state for the entire ten years, etc. Moreover, each applicant for citizenship undergoes a thorough check by the Ministry of the Interior and the BIS multiple times during their ten years of residence in the Czech Republic.
The last Russians arrived in the Czech Republic at the very beginning of 2022. These are people who had waited for their visas for a full two years, as the Czech consulate in Russia was not accepting applications due to the COVID epidemic. They found themselves in a window of opportunity that lasted only a short time before the onset of Russia’s military operation against Ukraine. Others arrived even before March 2020. All Russians who moved here came on various types of visas: work (or blue) cards, student visas, family reunification, or asylum visas. Other types of visas for full emigration were not available to Russians. Those who came on work and blue cards were invited by the Czech government to fill the shortage of highly qualified specialists in the labor market. The immigration process in the Czech Republic is the most complicated in the EU. Those specialists who moved here consciously chose the Czech Republic as a new home, as with their knowledge and skills, they could qualify for jobs in practically any country in the world.
Most of these individuals work in the IT sector, medicine, engineering, education and science, banking, and various management positions. The Czech Republic does not have a program that provides residency in exchange for purchasing real estate or conducting business (the so-called “Golden Visa”). Thus, analyst Petr Havlicek provided false information in his article for Deutsche Welle. Emigration is a labor-intensive and lengthy process, which has effectively been halted since March 2020.
Students from Russia chose the Czech Republic for its high level of higher education, which they could receive for free while studying in Czech.
There is also another category of Russians living in the Czech Republic: political refugees and dissidents who have received protection status from the Czech state. There are only 117 such individuals in the country. Their numbers have hardly increased since the start of military actions in Ukraine.
Now, let’s consider who is accused of espionage in favor of Russia. For example, the Shaposhnikovs, who are suspected of involvement in the explosion in Vrbětice. Both spouses had political asylum in the Czech Republic since 1992, obtained based on a document regarding Nikolai Shaposhnikov’s exclusion from his party. He claimed to be a political dissident. However, it later turned out that Shaposhnikov (a Russian) was expelled from the party for stealing gasoline from a military unit in the Czech Republic where he served in the Soviet Army. His wife (a Ukrainian) also received asylum through family reunification. Nikolai later obtained Czech citizenship after just eight years, raising questions about the basis for this. Thus, they both belonged to the so-called exception group, which Mr. Exner proposes to continue granting citizenship to. For many years, they were arms dealers. However, their Soviet past apparently did not raise concerns for the BIS, even considering the dangerous nature of their activities.
Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga, regular GRU officers, are accused of the explosion at the munitions depot in Vrbětice. They are indeed Russians, but they entered the Czech Republic for a few days on tourist visas with forged passports from Moldova and Tajikistan. They certainly did not intend to link their future lives, careers, and families to the Czech Republic.
There is a new case currently being investigated by the BIS regarding a regular officer of the Czech Republic’s police, a Georgian citizen named Levan Gurgenidze, who allegedly was an agent of Russian intelligence. This individual also seems to have received Czech citizenship as an exception, as the process took him only two to four years (according to various sources) instead of the usual ten. Moreover, while residing in the country on a temporary residence permit, he already worked in the Czech police, even without sufficient knowledge of the Czech language, which is typically inaccessible to ordinary immigrants.
Finally, let’s discuss the recent case of the attempted arson of a bus depot in Prague. All we know about this incident from open sources is that a young man from Colombia, Andrés Alfonso de la Hoz de la Cruz, flew to Prague for five days. On one of those days, he attempted to set fire to two buses parked in the depot. He was unsuccessful. Surveillance cameras tracked him, and he is currently in custody. Prime Minister Petr Fiala informed us that the man was hired by Russian special services to carry out an attack on social infrastructure. The police found a Telegram application on his phone, where he was subscribed to a group about arson. On that day, he was accompanied by an unidentified Russian. Were any more serious pieces of evidence or correspondence with Russians found on his phone? Or were conclusions about Russian involvement based solely on the fact that Telegram is an international messenger developed by Russian Pavel Durov? In any case, this person does not hold Russian citizenship and does not reside in the Czech Republic. There is no information at all about the Russian who was with the arsonist.
Thus, we can conclude that there is no need to force Russians to renounce their national citizenship. This will not help improve state security in countering espionage and sabotage. A Georgian from the special services, a Ukrainian arms dealer, a Latin American, and those who admire the spires of Catholic cathedrals with forged Moldovan and Tajik passports bear little resemblance to someone who has passed all the checks and exams to become a doctor or IT specialist, right?
This amendment was introduced to the Lex Ukrajina law after its first reading, and few people knew about it. However, Russians managed to learn about this impending bomb in time. Completely unfamiliar people united to prevent such discrimination. Together with Russians, their Czech and Ukrainian partners, Czech friends and colleagues, as well as Czech officials oppose it. For example, the Deputy Ombudsman of the Czech Republic sent a request to Interior Minister Vít Rakušan to clarify the need for this amendment. Many deputies from different parties are writing letters of indignation and support to their constituents, promising not to vote for this discriminatory amendment.
Thousands of people feel deceived by the state, as the unspoken agreement they entered into by choosing the Czech Republic as their home is being unilaterally broken by the state. The reason for this is nothing but collective guilt, which from the very first days of Russia’s war against Ukraine has been mentioned by Prime Minister Fiala, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan, and even President Petr Pavel (shortly after he stated that it would be good to intern all Russians, similar to the US during World War II). There are absolutely no grounds, aside from animosity, for discriminating against an entire national minority that has been fully integrated into Czech society over the past ten years.
Moreover, Russians in the Czech Republic are already significantly limited in their rights based solely on collective guilt. For example, since the investigation into the Vrbětice explosion was initiated, there has been increased control over the issuance of national and long-term visas. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, tourist and initial long-term visas have completely stopped being issued. The Czech state has also severely punished students from Russia by banning them from studying in several faculties, labeling them as a threat to national security. What was the basis for banning education in “political science and international relations”? “Social sciences with a focus on the history and culture of Russia”? “Information technology in cybersecurity,” “veterinary science, and forestry and ecology”? Many students were expelled from universities even in their final years of study. They lost the opportunity to study in their chosen fields, and in the best-case scenario, if the university was accommodating, they were forced to switch to other faculties. Some were unable to attend paid Czech language courses in preparation for university due to visa restrictions.
The story of closed bank accounts is also well-known, even for those Russians who held Czech citizenship, had no ties to Russia, and received all their income in the Czech Republic.
Furthermore, Russians living in the Czech Republic have effectively lost their right to family unity and cannot only bring their lonely, elderly parents (with a few approved cases) but cannot even issue invitations to them (a complete ban).
Moreover, Martin Exner’s words, which he generously shares on social media, stating that you can continue to live in the Czech Republic, buy real estate, study, and pay taxes while having a residence permit and permanent residency, but that they can be revoked if necessary, make all Russians feel endangered. Even those who already have Czech citizenship. Because, in essence, the state can do anything with them without warning. This happened with the ban on extending residence permits and permanent residency for non-biometric passports. At that time, in a single day, solely based on a post from Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský on X, without any official orders or changes in legislation, the MVCR refused to extend residence cards for people. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry was, of course, aware of the situation regarding the fact that the Russian embassy in the Czech Republic operates extremely poorly and slowly. Obtaining a new biometric passport takes several months.
In summary, as can be seen from all of the above, the latest wave of discrimination against Russians has nothing to do with state security, which the initiators of the amendment hide behind. Unfortunately, Russians know better than any other people in the world that justifying violations of human rights and freedoms in the name of “state security” leads to crimes against humanity. Do we really want to see the Czech Republic like this?