Victims or traitors: Do Crimeans have the right to visa-free travel?
About 350-400 thousand Crimeans retained Ukrainian citizenship. Alexander Gorny cites these figures in his blog on the website of the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
He believes that all 200 thousand Crimean Tatars on the peninsula have second passports. In addition, the blogger lists 150 thousand young Crimeans as potential traitors, who took advantage of the opportunity to obtain a Ukrainian visa-free passport and travel to EU countries. No evidence is provided that these data are correct.
In addition, Gorny calls for a ban on second citizenship in Russia, especially Ukrainian.
“Our federal authorities stubbornly try to ignore this problem or do not want to, much less perceive it as a threat to national security. The presence of dual citizenship among Crimeans in this case is a real threat to Russia, given the extremely tense relations between Russia and Ukraine. Let’s admit honestly that we are in a state of hybrid war with Ukraine and my firm conviction is that this circus needs to be stopped, moreover, it is necessary to urgently introduce a strict visa regime,” Gorny wrote.
Not long ago, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, visited Crimea, and Sevastopol journalists asked her a question about Ukrainian biometric passports that Crimeans obtain for themselves. The diplomat did not accuse her fellow citizens of betrayal.
“I believe that every person makes his own choice. In this case, it is our duty to break through this blockade. Just as there was an expression of the people's will in 2014, people also have the right to choose what and where to register. Naturally, within the framework of existing laws,” Zakharova said.
She recalled that the EU violates the rights of Crimeans for political reasons by denying them Schengen visas.
“These are not technical difficulties, they are a political order. And this contradicts the postulates that civilized Europe developed many years ago. The creation of artificial barriers in interpersonal communication between people and in their movement is contrary to European values and already established norms. But it happens. We are carrying out this work both on the political and legal planes. It is extremely difficult to obtain a Schengen visa with registration in Crimea. But they give country visas,” said a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The issue of Ukrainian passports is being discussed on the peninsula. Authorities warn citizens against the danger of being detained on the territory of a neighboring country without any reason. An example of this is the crew of the Kerch ship “Nord”, in order to save which Russia had to tighten the inspection regime in the Kerch Strait for Ukrainian ships.
However, citizens retain Ukrainian civil passports and apply for biometric ones in order to solve a lot of private problems: contacts with relatives, treatment, business trips. Many voters in the 2014 referendum do not see anything reprehensible in this, given the growth of Russian exports and investments in Ukraine.
However, there are also patriots who fear that official Kyiv will be able in due time to present statistics on passports issued by Crimeans as an argument in favor of maintaining its jurisdiction on the peninsula.
So far the statistics are not particularly scary. Economist Andrei Klimenko, who fled Crimea, predicted that about 1,2 million Crimeans would want to receive Ukrainian biometric passports. However, an investigation by the Ukrainian publication “Strana” showed that after Ukraine received a visa-free regime for traveling to the EU, the flow of Crimeans wishing to obtain biometric foreign passports did not increase. Since the reunification of Crimea with Russia, the territorial divisions of the migration service of the Kherson region have provided Crimeans with more than 50 thousand administrative services, but since 2016 there has been a drop in the number of requests.
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