Russian Duma seeks to consider Belarusians as Russian 'compatriots'
State Duma of Russia
Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy chairman of the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots (faction "United Russia"), has submitted a bill about all Belarusians becoming Russian "compatriots" to the State Duma, reports TASS.
Under the amendments to the law, all those who speak Russian will be considered "compatriots living abroad." But not only them.
The law has the term "list of peoples who historically lived in the Russian Federation." And it will state that compatriots are "representatives of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples associated with the state-forming people by the common historical destiny and culture."
Previously, Russian law recognized as compatriots people born in the Soviet Union. But after the collapse of the USSR, new generations grew up, so it is proposed to exclude the reference to the Soviet state from the law.
