YALTA (Sputnik) – Putin said at a meeting with representatives of Crimea’s national associations:
”If it comes to people who have been living here for a long time, I think we can decide on a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship.”
Majority of Crimean Tatars who left the Black Sea republic in the wake of a March 2014 vote to leave Ukraine for Russia had returned to their homes and now seek Russian citizenship, the deputy prime minister of Crimea said earlier.
Between 600 and 800 Tatars left Crimea for mainland Ukraine following the referendum, in which the ethnic-Russian majority voted to reintegrate into Russia after 61 years under Ukrainian rule.