Russian Federation will not issue passports in Donbas
2015-08-12
Posted by: badanov
The Kremlin has no plans to issue Russian passports to residents of Doentsk and Lugansk, according to a news report in ng.ru
Earlier it had been reported on rebel media that government officials in Donetsk and Lugansk were in negotiations with the Russian Federation government to begin issuing Russian Federation passports to residents of Donetsk and Lugansk, collectively known as the Don Basin, io Donbas. The talks were said to conclude by the end of September.
Now, it appears that those talks have failed, and that residents of the two breakaway republic whose Ukrainian passports have expired will be allowed to travel into the Russian Federation on expired Ukrainian passports.
Since last spring, most Ukrainian government services to residents of the Donbas have been suspended, including the payment of pensions and other services such as the issuance of travel documents. That has essentially placed residents in a bind since any travel documents issued by the two republics are not recognized by the Russian Federation, and many Ukrainian passports have since expired. Since residents are not allowed to travel to Ukraine to get their documents renewed, those residents have been stuck in the Donbas.
A Russian Federation law on the books permits the issuance of a passport if the applicant can be proved to speak fluent Russian and/or has family in the Russian Federation, under limited circumstances. It has been speculated as early as last week, that the Russian Federation was considering issuing passports to Donbas residents.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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