Dual Russian Citizens To Get Turkmenistan Travel Papers

Turkmen citizens who also hold Russian passports will be eligible to receive Turkmen travel documents.

Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry announced on June 14 that it will start issuing passports to Turkmen nationals with dual citizenship on June 17.

The announcement comes seven years after Turkmen authorities started refusing to issue new biometric passports to Turkmen citizens with dual Russian citizenship, saying they had to renounce their Russian citizenship first.

Tens of thousands of Turkmen citizens have dual Russian nationality, in accordance with a December 1993 Turkmen-Russian agreement.

In 2003, Turkmenistan's parliament ratified the document on annulling the dual-citizenship agreement with Russia, which the Russian Duma refused to ratify.

On June 10, the Kremlin announced that President Vladimir Putin had accepted an invitation of Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to visit Ashgabat in the near future.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Interfax