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Politics

روسيا وسياسة جوازات السفر التوسعية

May 7, 2019 Agnia Grigas

واشنطن، العاصمة- في 24 أبريل/نيسان، أعطى الرئيس الروسي فلاديمير بوتين أمرا بإتاحة جوازات السفر لسكان مناطق شرق دونيتسك التابعة لأوكرانيا، ومناطق لوهانسك التي تخضع لسيطرة الانفصاليين المواليين لروسيا. ويقول الكريملين أن هذا كانت لفتة إنسانية محضة. لكنها في الحقيقة جزء من استراتيجية طويلة الأمد لتعزيز السيطرة على أوكرانيا الشرقية- ودول أخرى، وفقا لإعلان روسيا أنها تدرس خلق "عملية مواطنة مبسطة" لجميع الأوكرانيين.

وطالما استعملت روسيا المواطنة وجوازات السفر لتوسيع نفوذها. وكما أصف في كتابي ما وراء القرم: الإمبراطورية الروسية الجديدة، عادة ما تبدأ العملية بتعزيز القوة الناعمة والالتزام الإنساني. وبعد ذلك تتحول إلى سياسات مواطنة، تهدف إلى دعم المتحدثين باللغة الروسية في الخارج، وتشجيع الحرب المعلوماتية، و"إخضاعهما" للنفوذ الروسي. "وسياسة جواز السفر" هي الخطوة الخامسة في هذه العملية، تليها الحماية، وأخيرا، ضم الأراضي.

وبينما تستعمل معظم الدول تسهيلاتها القنصلية لجذب السياح، وتعزيز التبادلات الثقافية أو التربوية، وإدارة الهجرة الاقتصادية، استعملتها روسيا للدفع قدما بمصالحها الأمنية وطموحاتها الإقليمية أيضا. ومنذ أوائل تسعينيات القرن الماضي، سعت روسيا إلى تأسيس مواطنة مزدوجة للشتات الروسي في الدول السوفياتية سابقا، وفي نفس الوقت "منح جوازات السفر" لمناطق معينة خارج حدودها يسكنها متحدثون باللغة الروسية، الذين غالبا ما يتحدون قوانين تلك الدول ومعاييرها الدولية.

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j. von Hettlingen May 9, 2019

Agnia Grigas calls Russia’s “Passportization” a form of expansionism. Three days after Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a Ukrainian comedian with no political experience, won the presidential election on April 21, Putin moved swiftly to test the newly elected and signed a law that could allow millions of people living in breakaway regions of south-east Ukraine to receive Russian passports in a “simplified citizenship procedure.”
The provocative decree angered Kiev, fearing the move would impede the reintegration of the breakaway territories into Ukraine and destabilise the region. Putin claimed it was a purely humanitarian gesture, during a news conference in Vladivostok, after a meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. Given that Ukrainian leaders appeared intent on isolating the region, Putin said, “we cannot just look at it calmly.”
Ukraine, which does not allow dual citizenship, sees it as an attack on its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Putin defended the decree, saying other countries do the same. Hungary, Poland and Romania issue passports to ethnic minorities living in neighbouring states. Yet the only difference is that they did not invade their neighbours, as Russia did with Ukraine.
The author says, the move is “actually part of a long-term strategy to consolidate control over eastern Ukraine,” – a standard page of the Kremlin’s playbook in creating frozen conflicts in countries of the former Soviet Union – Georgia and Ukraine – that seek to break out of Russia’s orbit. If the conflict continues for 10 years, up to 70% of the population in eastern Ukraine will have Russian passports, making it more difficult to return to Kiev’s fold.
Putin’s decision to hand out passports mirrors policies in other breakaway republics. By reinforcing separatist sentiment in former Soviet states, Russia's citizenship policies had paved the way for the country to secure de facto control of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea, and Moldova’s Transnistria region. Populating an area with Russian citizens who theoretically need protection provides the Kremlin with a built-in pretext for military intervention, should the occasion arise.
Russia justified its 2008 war with Georgia, and subsequent recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, in part because of the large number of Russian passport holders there. He said the blockade of the breakaway regions made it difficult for citizens to travel or receive basic government services like free education and health care, family support schemes (including mortgage relief and cash payments for large families), and civilian and military pensions, or vote in Russian elections.
Ukraine’s Parliament responded to the Russian move by passing a law cementing the critical role of Ukrainian as the country’s official language and further marginalising Russian. The Kremlin’s outrage over a similar proposal in 2014 helped set off the current conflict. The current standoff poses a challenge to Zelenskiy, who had signalled he could be more amenable to compromise on the separatist regions than the outgoing president, Petro Poroshenko, campaigning in part on Ukrainians’ war weariness.
The author says the new government in Kiev “must strengthen its outreach in Donbas, in order to counter Russia’s attempts to alienate the people there.” Unfortunately Ukraine has “limited ability to push back against Russian expansionism.” She urges the US and Europe to do much more – like considering further sanctions – to “prevent Russia from consolidating” yet another land grab. With a chaotic administration under Trump and Britain leaving the EU, both the US and the EU are preoccupied with problems and crises, allowing Putin to indulge in nefarious games.
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Petey Bee May 8, 2019

The EU was supposed to make a similar offer for citizens of the FSU to integrate economically, and still can. But so far, military integration and loan sharking took priority.
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Bernhard Kopp May 8, 2019

To the best of my memory from the time I lived and worked in Moscow and Kiew, 1994 - 2002, a considerable number of people in South Ossetia, Abchasia and Ukraine/Crimea did not want to be anything but Russians. They agreed with Solschenyzin, later repeated by Putin, that the break-up of some of the UdSSR, in particular the ancient Russian lands, was a historic tragedy. Kiew prides itself to be the " Mother of all Russian Cities " and the history back to Vladimir I of more then 1000 years ago is well known. Since 1991 " Ukraine " is facing the difficulty to find Ukrainians who would " have the stuff " to make, organize and run an independent state. An oligarchic kleptocracy will not be sufficient. Moscow knows that.
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