{"id":56803,"date":"2023-12-21T13:54:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T10:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=longreads&p=56803"},"modified":"2023-12-21T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T10:54:15","slug":"recruits-population-decline-reasons-for-putins-passport-offer","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/56803\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruits, population decline \u2013 reasons for Putin\u2019s passport offer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On December 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an edict allowing citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova to obtain Russian passports without holding residence permits or passing history and law tests. Belarusians are not required to take language tests.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n \"\"\n
\n \n
\n (soyuz.by)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Union State not enough<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Belarusians already do not need a Russian passport to live and work in Russia. Union State agreements have made their legalization quite simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accords provide for an open border between the countries, mutual access to the labor market, social security guarantees and easy issuance of residence permits. According to the 2021 census, more than 208,000 Belarusian nationals lived in Russia, mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belarusian-Russian integration process gained momentum after Moscow provided crucial support to keep Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka in power during mass protests that followed the 2020 presidential election. Since then, Belarus has become economically and politically dependent on Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, \u0141uka\u0161enka reciprocated by approving 28 union programs. In November, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the programs were 90 percent complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What more does Moscow need? The Kremlin sticks to its plan of incorporating Belarus into Russia. Citizenship procedures were barely mentioned in the integration programs. It was already easy for Belarusians to obtain Russian passports, but now Putin has made it even easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens required to serve in the army<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The move may have something to do with Russia\u2019s need for new recruits for its war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia has suffered heavy losses. Last fall, it had a massive mobilization, and this year it continues to draft prisoners and migrants and generously fund mercenaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian passports oblige male citizens of conscription age to report for active duty, and if they have a registered address, they will not wait long to receive summons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreigners can join the Russian army as volunteers without Russian citizenship and obtain Russian passports after a certain period of service. Nevertheless, Moscow seems to be looking for yet another way to strengthen its occupation force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, potential applicants for Russian citizenship are well aware of it. Their number has declined in the last two years, since Russia started the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Civic Assistance Committee, a Russian non-governmental organization, 735,400 foreigners received Russian passports in 2021, 691,000 in 2022, and 106,300 in the first quarter of 2023. Most of them were natives of former Soviet countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kommersant <\/em>quotes the Russian interior ministry as saying that in the first half of 2023, 205,000 people acquired Russian citizenship. That was a decrease of 29 percent from the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From January to October, 317,000 foreigners obtained Russian citizenship, 46 percent fewer than in the same period of the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusians accounted for a very small share. In January-June, only 4,557 Belarusians (about 2.2 percent of the total) applied for citizenship compared with as many as 13,876 Kazakhs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia’s shrinking population<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Putin’s second possible motive is also related to the war. The invasion has already taken a heavy toll on Russia’s population and is likely to hit even harder in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 29, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the Russian army has suffered more than 300,000 casualties since the beginning of the war. The US government estimates that at least 120,000 Russians have died in Ukraine, with 170,000 to 180,000 seriously wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, war-induced emigration is accelerating the population decline. An estimated 500,000 to one million people have left the country since February 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that most of these people are young and active, Russia is headed for a severe demographic crisis. The Federal State Statistics Service expects the country’s population to fall by 7.68 million or 5.2 percent to 138.8 million by 2046.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials in Russia urge women to have more children, are discussing a ban on abortion, promoting “traditional values” and suggesting other ways to increase the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passport issuance is one such option. Since 2019, Putin has signed edicts providing quick access to citizenship for natives of Crimea, residents of the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, and all residents of Ukraine in general, as well as for Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria nationals who held Soviet passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, in 2002, Russia handed out passports to residents of the unrecognized pro-Russian breakaway regions of Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka not happy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whenever Russia starts issuing passports to foreigners, it is usually a sign that it may soon declare the need to protect and liberate its nationals abroad. Minsk’s response to Putin’s tempting passport offer has been remarkably muted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, officials and state media have been silent. The Belarusian state newswire BelTA <\/em>published a short news piece on its Telegram channel, while its website ignored Putin\u2019s edict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Moldova responded immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I see this as another attempt to recruit cannon fodder for this incomprehensible and brutal war of the Kremlin against Ukraine. And I would like to warn, I would like to ask Moldovan citizens not to follow these simplified procedures,” said Prime Minister Dorin Recean, noting that 150,000 to 200,000 Moldovan nationals resided in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka is not in a position to speak out against Moscow, but he is hardly enthusiastic about the possibility of Belarusians obtaining Russian passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus is already in the midst of a demographic and labor force crisis. Minsk is facing the consequences of natural aging and the mass emigration of young and active people to the West. If another window opens to the East, migration from Belarus can surge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an edict allowing citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova to obtain Russian passports without holding residence permits or passing history and law tests. Belarusians are not required to take language tests. Union State not enough Belarusians already do not need a Russian passport to live and work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":56565,"template":"","rubric":[30,24],"class_list":["post-56803","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-security","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRecruits, population decline \u2013 reasons for Putin\u2019s passport offer | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On December 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an edict allowing citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova to obtain Russian passports without\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/56803\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recruits, 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