A YEAR AFTER: MAIN VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CRIMEA PART 4 the applications for refusal of citizenship of the Russian Federation/retention of the Ukrainian citizenship together with applications for issuance of passports of Rus- sian citizens, which constituted an additional obstacle. In total, according to the data presented by the head of the Russian FMS regional department in Crimea, this option was used by 3,500 people. There were document- ed cases when the people willing to R le the application just had no time to do this. In addition, these applications could not be R led by the people who were abroad, ill, etc. After R ling such refusal, the citizens of Ukraine, in fact, became foreigners in Crimea for the RF authorities who are in a position to limit the period of their stay in Crimea, expulse them or even deny them the entry to their own places of residence. Having the Russian passport is a prerequisite for the realization of a signiR cant num- ber of rights by Crimean residents. Namely, getting all kinds of social beneR ts, ob- taining a driver’s license, vehicle registration, work at certain positions (civil service, budgetary institutions), obtaining of land lots, free medical care, and re-registration of ownership rights. Civil servants of all levels are widely reported to be coerced to denounce their Ukrainian citizenship, as well as to hand over their Ukrainian pass- ports to the heads of institutions where they work. Thus, the system is created that forces Crimeans to acknowledge Russian citizen- 5 ship. On December 29, 2014, the changes were introduced to the Article 4 of the Federal Constitutional Law # 6, according to which the Crimean residents are able to abandon the second ‘foreign citizenship’ by R ling an application and the foreign passport to the corresponding authorities of the RF. The provisions of the law are formulated in such a manner that a person residing in the RF shall be considered as not having the citizenship of another country. This regulation cannot apply to other countries. In this way, the Russian authorities are trying to deprive the Crimeans of Ukrainian citizenship, ‘bypassing’ the law of Ukraine and international standards, according to which this is possible only upon personal appeal of a citizen to the relevant Ukrainian authorities. Especially vulnerable is the position of orphans and children in the care or custody of state authorities. According to the o7 cial data as per August 1, 2014, there were 4,228 such children in Crimea. Administrations of all Crimean institutions started to collaborate with the Russian authorities. The children are, in fact, denied the right to choose their citizenship (the RF passport is provided on reaching 14 years of age). Separate category is presented by Ukraininan citizens who permanently resided in Crimea before the occupation, but were not registered there. Such persons became 5 http://www.rg.ru/2014/12/31/krym-dok.html 83