Russia has granted citizenship to 196K Ukrainians, ministry says

Russia has granted citizenship to more than 196,000
Ukrainians since simplifying the procedure for of acquiring a Russian passport
for the residents of the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to
the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry. The figure includes 60,000 residents of
Ukrainian-controlled areas who have become citizens, the ministry said, as
reported by the Russian TASS news agency on Jan. 1.

Earlier on Dec. 9, Russian Interior Minister Vladislav
Kolokoltsev told the Interfax news agency that 125,000 Donbas residents had
acquired Russian citizenship at that time. He also said that, since April,
160,000 Ukrainians had applied to receive Russian passports. That suggests
that, in less than a month, 36,000 more Ukrainians applied for citizenship,
while Russia granted around 71,000 passports over the course of 22 days. The
Kyiv Post reported on Jan. 2 that it could not confirm the figures reported by
TASS or Interfax.

Russian President Putin signed the decree implementing
the simplified citizenship procedure on April 24, deeming it a humanitarian
measure to help Donbas residents denied their basic human rights. Vladislav
Surkov, a key presidential aide who reportedly oversees occupied Donbas, said
the decision was “the duty of the Russian Federation to those speaking and
thinking in Russian.”

Zenon Zawada: If the
Kremlin is reporting 200,000 Ukrainians gaining Russian citizenship (the
majority being in Donbas), the real figure could be higher (but being
deliberately downplayed). And if the Minsk Accords are ever completely
fulfilled (the likelihood of which we see as no greater than 50%), the very
fact of hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens being present in Donbas will
ensure heightened social tensions and political gridlock in Ukraine,
particularly in terms of Euro-Atlantic integration. So Putin will maintain his
shadow over Ukraine with the fulfillment of the Minsk Accords, or even the
failure to do so.

To remove Putin’s blockage of Euro-Atlantic
integration, the Voice parliamentary faction has proposed freezing the conflict
in Donbas, a proposal we don’t see the Russians being much interested in.
Indeed, we believe former President Poroshenko offered the best course, which
was to keep fighting the war while aligning both foreign and domestic policy
entirely towards Western integration. Poroshenko would have had more success if
he pursued pro-Westerns reforms with more seriousness, and if not for the
rampant corruption that his administration is widely accused of.