As of today almost 10% of the people living in Armenia have Russian passports, Chief of the National Migration Service of Armenia Gagik Yeganyan said in an interview to azatutyun.am.
"Today some 200,000-300,000 people in Armenia have Russian passports. Most of them are dual citizens. But citizenship does not always mean permanent residence. We have given Armenian passports to tens of thousands of Diaspora Armenians but very few of them have come to live in Armenia on a permanent basis. So, having a Russian passport does not imply living in Russia permanently. This just helps people to solve their social problems," Yeganyan said.
Presently, Russia's State Duma is considering draft amendments to the law on the citizenship of the Russian Federation, which say that citizens of former Soviet republics that live in Russia and speak Russian may hope to obtain Russian citizenship within just three months provided that they renounce their original citizenships and take a Russian language exam.