Moscow is massively spreading Russian passports in occupied Donbas

The Kremlin is intensifying the issuing Russian passports to residents of the temporarily occupied Donbas. To this end, Russia more than doubled the number of entities that distribute passports. Thus, the number of new Russian citizens in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea is significantly growing. Formally, Kremlin uses that to justify its aggression abroad — under the pretext of protecting Russian citizens.

In April 2019, President Putin of Russia issued a decree introducing simplified issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied Donbas region.

During the first two months, about 2,000 people got Russian citizenship, but after that, the pace of the process increased significantly. As of July 2020, more than 200,000 passports of the Russian Federation have been issued for people in Eastern Ukraine.

This rise was due to the simplification of processing documents, as well as increasing the number of passports offices in the neighboring Rostov oblast in Russia — from three to eight. At the same time, priorities have been set. For example, occupation administration officials, law enforcement officers, and young people of the so-called DPR and LPR should receive Russian citizenship as a matter of priority.

It costs people 550 rubles (around $8). At the same time, applicants can apply immediately for documents to travel abroad.

The Kremlin strongly encourages and provides an active propaganda campaign in Donbas, saying about the “wide opportunities” of Russian citizenship. Thus, residents of eastern Ukraine are offered registration in the system of mandatory pension insurance, as well as the opportunity to obtain a compulsory health insurance policy, taxpayer identification number, certificate of maternal capital, Sberbank card.

It happens when the spread of COVID-19 is going for the worse in the occupied Donbas and Rostov region of Russia.

The movement of people to Russia and back does not require any observation or testing. Local authorities are downgrading the statistics of coronavirus spreading in order to hide the true scale of the tragedy. Authorities forbid doctors to disclose true information about the real number of patients. In the cases of deaths, medicals should report heart disease, influenza, acute respiratory infection, SARS, but not COVID-19.

The situation is exacerbated by the lack of medical specialists in infectious diseases, as well as the supply of medical equipment and drugs to medical institutions in the occupied Donbas. In addition, the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine are not provided with sufficient tests for the population.