Andrey Malashkin has been trying to renounce his Russian citizenship since the beginning of last year. Once he managed to get an appointment at the Russian consulate, but by then one of his documents had expired. In the fall, however, Russia stopped accepting renunciation applications altogether.

Recently, Malashkin heard that the consulate in Helsinki might still be accepting applications.

"I asked the Russian Consulate in Finland what my options are if I can do it through their office and I got the answer that unfortunately they do not accept the certificate issued by the Estonian Police and Border Guard," he said.

The problem was brought to the attention of the Police and Border Guard Board earlier this week.

"When a citizen of another country applies to us for Estonian citizenship, we issue a guarantee letter that, based on the information we have, the person will receive Estonian citizenship within one month. Now their concern is that this guarantee letter does not guarantee 100 percent Estonian citizenship," Marina Kadak of the PPA, said.

Kadak said the problems are likely related to the Russian Citizenship Law, which was amended last fall, and while other countries generally notify about the changed requirements, Russia has not done so.

"By its very nature, (the problem) is relatively easy to solve. We need to rewrite some of the sentences, maybe change the stage where the background check is done, and then I think that problem should be solved," Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets (SDE) said.

Whether it will be enough to change the internal rules of procedure at the police service or whether it will require a change in legislation, the Minister of the Interior could not yet clarify

A number of time-limited documents are needed to renounce Russian citizenship, and if the problem takes a long time to resolve, people will have to start reapplying for some of the documents.

"I can't say how soon, but it's not a matter of months. It can be resolved in a short period of time," he said.

Despite the obstacles, the number of Russian passport renouncers has increased in recent years. In 2021, 298 former Russian citizens received Estonian passports, in 2022 it was 365, and last year it was 467. In addition to Russian citizens, former holders of gray passports have also been eager to apply for Estonian passports. Last year, 516 people who previously had no citizenship became Estonian citizens.

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