Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to issue instructions to his secretariat and the government on providing assistance to refugees from the southeastern regions of Ukraine and residents of Crimea experiencing difficulties with acquiring Russian citizenship due to problems with residency registration.
Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova briefed Putin on problems that refugees and Crimean residents are experiencing at a meeting on Tuesday.
“I will instruct the presidential secretariat to help implement all of your proposals along with the government,” Putin said.
Pamfilova said the number of refugees from southeastern regions of Ukraine has begun to grow, but not all Russian regions are providing assistance to them.
“According to my information, the inflow of people from the east [of Ukraine] has begun to grow, and not only to the border districts [of Russia], but some of them have even reached Yekaterinburg. In some places, the authorities are reacting promptly, but in others absolutely indifferently. People are helping, but there’s no system. It seems to me that we need an urgent systemic program as to how these people should be received, provided with jobs, and so on,” she said.
Pamfilova said also with reference to experts whom she said she trusted that about 50,000 people in Crimea and Sevastopol want to acquire Russian citizenship but cannot do so as they did not have permanent residential registration in that territory.
