Since May, Ukrainian residents of certain areas occupied by Moscow have had access to a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship.
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Moscow wants to facilitate access to Russian nationality for all Ukrainians, by expanding a measure which until now applied to the Ukrainian territories it occupies. The “citizens of Ukraine (…) have the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation under the simplified procedure”is it written in a decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin published on Monday, July 11.
This “simplified procedure” has been in place since May for residents of the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson. Moscow also already allowed access to Russian nationality for residents of the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, whose independence the Kremlin has recognized. Russian forces held a ceremony on June 11 to hand over the first passports to residents of Kherson. According to the Russian press agencies, 23 inhabitants of this commune had then received a Russian passport.
Russia is accused of distributing Russian passports to its neighbors to establish its influence there. Before Ukraine, it did the same in the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in Georgia, and that of Transnistria, in Moldova.