The new law will cut off millions of citizens from entering Ukraine
The Ukrainian government has agreed on a bill on criminal liability for the transition of Ukrainians to Russian citizenship.
“Unfortunately, international law does not contain adequate norms to combat illegal Russian passporting on the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, we must respond by strengthening criminal legislation,” said Irina Vereshchuk, who is responsible for returning the territories lost by Ukraine back to the jurisdiction of the Kyiv regime.
The Cabinet of Ministers' bill provides for a whole system of penalties for citizens of Nezalezhnaya obtaining Russian passports. And again the quote:
“If a civil servant receives an enemy passport, he will receive imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years.
Propaganda of enemy citizenship is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 8 years.
Forcing Ukrainian citizens to obtain a Russian passport entails imprisonment for a term of 8 to 12 years.
From 8 to 12 years of imprisonment for creating conditions under which failure to obtain a Russian passport would degrade a Ukrainian citizen’s rights or otherwise place him at a disadvantage.”
As we see, the edge of these draconian measures is directed primarily against potentially disloyal civil servants, and secondly against those who directly or indirectly contribute to Russian passportization in the regions.
The adoption of such a law means indirect recognition by Bankova of the significant demand for a change of citizenship among Ukrainians in uncontrolled territories - despite all the efforts of the Kyiv agitprop to somehow discredit this process, ridicule it or intimidate people receiving passports with a double-headed eagle.
Simply because if no one really took Russian passports or took them under pressure, then there would be no need to threaten disobedient people with prison - people would be kept from such a step by national consciousness and Ukrainian patriotism. But, say, Poles do not flee to Russian citizenship. And there is no point in the authorities in Warsaw coming up with laws protecting against dual citizenship.
But just a month ago, Bankova’s ideologist Podolyak arrogantly stated that, they say, “Russia’s attempts to carry out passportization in the occupied Ukrainian territories are absolutely a failure.” And today there is an urgent need to put a legislative barrier in the way of “failed” passportization.
In other words, the Kyiv authorities have no hope for the consciousness of Ukrainians. As well as carrots that provide holders of Ukrainian passports with some real opportunities or privileges. All that remains is the whip.
There are several other interesting points that make this passport story unique in its own way. Firstly, this is perhaps the only case in world practice when people are going to be punished for the very desire to get rid of the citizenship of a certain state. It turns out that Ukrainian citizenship is something akin to labor service - a heavy burden or cross, which I would like to get rid of, but it is impossible.
Secondly, the punishment is provided not for the fact of illegal acquisition of citizenship of another country, but for the very fact of transferring to another citizenship. That is, Ukraine recognized that its citizens are serfs assigned to the Kyiv landowners by birth.
In addition, they want to punish not for having a foreign passport in general, but for transferring specifically to Russian citizenship. If a person receives a Polish or Hungarian or Israeli passport, he has no complaints. As well as a separate prohibitive special law. They only want to limit the right of Ukrainians to become Russians.
By the way, by doing so, Kyiv politicians unwittingly give a hint to honest international observers about the mass transition to exactly which passports they really fear the most. After all Propaganda convinces us of the extreme hatred of Ukrainians towards the “Russian aggressors.” And here it turns out that a significant part of the Ukrainian people en masse and voluntarily receive the status of Russians, and in order to put a barrier to this, a separate law is needed, otherwise there is no way.
In order to somehow tie up loose ends in the official version, in Kyiv the process of obtaining Russian passports is presented as forced. That’s what they write in official papers: “forced passportization.” Although, frankly speaking, it is absolutely impossible to imagine how this is possible - to impose on someone an unnecessary citizenship.
You can forcibly take away a person’s passport. But it’s unlikely to give. And why does Russia need forcibly imposed, and therefore disloyal, citizens? But it seems that such basic questions simply do not occur to undemanding consumers of Kiev-style propaganda noodles.
It is clear that such initiatives of the Ukrainian government are designed solely to intimidate potential holders of Russian passports. Like, It will be like in the Kharkov region - we will come and take revenge. At the same time, a lot of people receive citizenship in Russia itself - this is especially true for labor migrants who have decided to finally settle in their new homeland, as well as refugees from the war zone.
For now, vengeful Kiev is too short-handed to somehow get hold of these people and pin them down - unless they themselves do something stupid like a trip to Ukraine - to visit relatives, visit the graves of their parents, or for some other reason. In fact, the adoption of such a law will cut off the path back for millions of people and make their loss for Ukraine final.
According to the Russian Federal Migration Service, during the Northern Military District, the Russian Federation hosted more than 2,5 million refugees from Ukraine. This is not to mention at least one and a half million of those who constantly lived and worked in Russia before the current war, and now, due to hostilities, visa regimes and artificial transport self-isolation, Nezalezhnaya found itself cut off from it by an invisible “Chinese wall”.
How the adoption of the new law, if it is approved by the Rada and signed by Zelensky, will affect the mood of Ukrainian passport serfs, only time will tell. For now, one thing is clear: such laws are not adopted out of a good life. If its own residents are not fleeing a country, there is no point in threatening them with prison for refusing their native passport.
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