Euroradio learns how ex-Kyrgyz President Bakiyev got Belarusian citizenship

— Good afternoon. I would like to know about the Decree dated December 17, 2010 "On granting Belarusian citizenship to footballer Renan Bressan".

— This document is unavailable.

— Oh. Can I ask why? Maybe, it will be published in a while?

— This document is for official use only, it hasn't been submitted to the National Center of Legal Information by the Administration of the Republic of Belarus for registration.

This was my dialogue with a representative of the on-line consultative service of the national legal portal pravo.by, which gathers all the laws and other important documents, issued in Belarus. I have a rather indirect interest to Brazilian Renan Bressan. This talented footballer got the Belarusian citizenship in 2010, without living the necessary 7 years in the country (Bressan has lived in Belarus since 2007). The footballer got the Belarusian passport "for special merits before the Republic of Belarus". He was summoned to the national team straightaway. Coach Kandratsyeu proudly confessed that it was his idea to "Belarusicize" the Brazilian.

If the merits of the Brazilian footballer before our country are obvious (Bressan even scored for Belarus against his home country Brazil), there can be questions with regard to the former President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev. After the blood-spilling events in that country and change of the authority he escaped from Kyrgyzstan and hid in Belarus. His status was unclear for a long time, but the politician confessed in an interview to the portal interfax.by in the beginning of June that he had been a citizen of Belarus since 2010. This means, since the moment he arrived.

"As for the question of my extradition, the Belarusian authorities have made it absolutely clear - Mr. Bakiyev has been a citizen of the Republic of Belarus since 2010, so, according to the legislation, he cannot be a subject for extradition."

As Mr. Bakiyev has no obviuos special merits before Belarus, the information about provision a Belarusian passport to him caused a wave of jokes and allegations. Like, he got the citizenship illegally. The attempts to find the document on provision him the Belarusian citizenship were in vain, as in the case with footballer Renan Bressan. The Department on Citizenship and Migration of the Interior Ministry agreed to reveal just the overall statistical numbers, after an official enquiry. We had to wait for the reply for nearly a month. The document states that 4020 foreign citizens got the Belarusian citizenship last year, and this year there are already 2 000 such people. The most frequent reason is living in Belarus for 7 years, or having close relatives among the Belarusian citizens.

According to the information provided by the Interior Ministry, other cases of getting the Belarusian citizenship are connected with the internatinal agreements made by the Republic of Belarus. For example, the "Agreement between the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation on the Simplified Procedure of Granting the Citizenship". According to it, the citizens of the mentioned countries can get the Belarusian citizenship under a simplified procedure. It is enough to file an application, a birth certificate and the document which would confirm that the person lived at the territory of the RSFR, USSR, Kazakh SSR or Kyrgyz SSR before December 21, 1991. The Belarusian authorities should take the decision on granting the Belarusian citizenship within three months since the moment of filing the documents. Therefore, there are grounds to think that Kurmanbek Bakiyev got the Belarusian citizenship absolutely legally.

However, it is not 100% sure that the blue Belarusian passport will save Bakiyev from the Kyrgyz justice. In the beginning of 2013, the authorities of Kazakhstan deported Bakiyev's former loyalist Pajzullabek Rakhmanov to Kyrgyzstan. During the arrest, he showed the Belarusian passport, issued by Pershamaiski department of internal affairs in Minsk. Still, the Belarusian Embassy in Kazakhstan showed no interest to their citizen's destiny. Now Rakhmanov is waiting for the trial. Biskek promises the trial will be fair.

Photo - polit.ru