Chairman of the State Duma (Госдума) Vyacheslav Volodin cited data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (МВД): by May 2026, the acquired citizenship of Russia had been terminated for more than 4.5 thousand people. Around 40% of these decisions were made in the past year. The statement reflects the application of the rules after the list of grounds was expanded to more than 80. At the same time, the publication contains no new requirements for employers, special HR procedures, or deadlines.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (МВД) is the Russian government agency responsible, among other things, for migration and citizenship matters.
The statistics show the scale of application of the rules but do not introduce an HR rule
The data reported by the State Duma (Госдума) concern decisions to terminate acquired Russian citizenship. As of May 2026, more than 4.5 thousand such decisions had been made. Around 40% of that number were made in the past year. For a company, this is primarily an indication that the relevant rules are applied in practice, rather than a description of a new procedure for working with personnel.
The source does not identify industries, positions, types of companies, or categories of employees separately affected by the changes. Therefore, the overall figure cannot be applied to a specific organization, workforce, or employee. The publication also does not make it possible to assess the reasons for each decision, its consequences for an individual, or the documents confirming that person’s status.
The expansion of grounds does not mean the emergence of employer obligations
According to the statement by the Chairman of the State Duma (Госдума), the list of grounds for terminating acquired citizenship was expanded a year ago; there are now more than 80 such grounds. This is the key change indicated by the material. However, the list itself is not disclosed in the information provided, nor is the procedure for applying it to each case.
For the HR department, it is important not to replace legal analysis with assumptions. The source contains no instruction to conduct an unscheduled employee review, collect new documents, change working conditions, or introduce a special register. No new requirements for employers are stated either. If an issue arises in relation to a specific employee, the employer should rely on official documents and the text of the applicable law, rather than news statistics.
How to establish internal controls without excessive measures
For an employer, the practical value of the statement lies in carefully organizing the verification of information where there is already a legal or HR basis for doing so. A general publication does not confirm a change in the status of any employee. Accordingly, it cannot serve as an independent basis for an HR action or a conclusion as to which documents a particular person must provide.
A sensible control in this situation is to distinguish external news from verified personnel information. If an individual case is being considered within the company, it is necessary to rely on official documents relating specifically to that case and to verify the applicable provision of law. The material does not establish the format of such verification, its frequency, or the set of documents. These parameters are not specified in the statement.
What should not be added to HR regulations based on the publication
The statement contains no deadlines for employers, no date for a transition period, and no description of the consequences of company inaction. Therefore, it cannot be used to derive deadlines for updating personnel files, a mandatory audit date, or penalty risks. It also does not state whether employers must notify any authorities or take other actions as a result of the published statistics.
For management and HR, this means the need to preserve the limits of the source. The news may be taken into account in monitoring migration and HR developments, but it does not replace an official legal source for a specific situation. This approach reduces the risk of mistakenly giving general information the significance of an individual HR decision and helps avoid creating process requirements that the publication does not contain.
What to check
- Record the publication as a general informational signal, rather than as a new HR requirement.
- Do not change an employee’s status or make HR decisions based solely on State Duma (Госдума) statistics.
- Do not draw a conclusion about a specific employee’s citizenship without that employee’s official documents and an applicable legal basis.
- If a specific situation requires assessment, consult the official text of the applicable law.
- Do not build unspecified deadlines, transition periods, or sanctions into the HR process.