On May 22-23, 2014 chairperson of our organization Anastasiya Ponomareva, coordinator Olga Plykina, director of the Moscow Office of our organization Elena Polischuk and lawyers Elena Samarskaya and Vladislav Tsarevskiy attended the seminar on the subject «Innovations in the legal status of foreign nationals — 2» which was organized under a program of «Memorial» Human Rights Center in Moscow.

Heads of structural subdivisions of the FMS of Russia, officials of UNHCR Office in Russia, representatives of offices of Commissioners for Human Rights of different RF subjects, the Human Rights Council under the RF President, human rights organizations, and advocates took part in the seminar.

The following themes and issues were discussed at the seminar:

• the review of the application of the Federal Law «On Citizenship of the Russian Federation» for the last two years;
• the practice of granting Russian citizenship in accordance with recent changes in legislation;
• new regulations of the European Court of Human Rights;
• access to asylum procedure at FMS agencies and in detention facilities (detention centers for foreign nationals);
• appeals from detention facilities;
• granting of asylum to different categories of asylum seekers (citizens of Syria, Egypt, the DPRK and other states);
• country-specific information about Syria, Egypt, and the DPRK;
• new migration legislation: ban on entry to Russia, registration;
• the correspondence of procedures for granting citizenship in the Crimea and other Russian regions.

The seminar was held in the form of reports and discussions.