TALLINN, Mar 20, BNS - The government Thursday decided to give Estonian citizenship to 347 people who had met the necessary conditions of becoming citizens of Estonia.
The integration program for 2008-2013 worked out at the Population Minister's office sets the aim of keeping the current level of growth in the citizenry but does not quote any concrete figures.
The previous integration program set the aim that the Estonian citzenry should grow by at least 5,000 citizens a year.
Last year 4,228 people and in 2006 4,753 people became Estonian citizens.
At present Estonia has 115,672 residents of undefined citizenship, 9 percent of the population.
The Russian embassy puts the number of election-age Russian citizens in Estonia at 110,000 and that of underage Russian citizens at 4,000.
According to the Citizenship and Migration Board 95,912 Russian citizens had effective Estonian residence permits as of January 1.
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee
