Three levels of background are in order here.
First, what happened today: Putin announced that Russia would offer expedited citizenship to residents of ‘certain’ parts of eastern Ukraine and then confirmed that he had in mind quite specifically the quasi-occupied territories knows as the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Ukraine’s president-elect, Volodymyr Zelensky, promptly decried the move and called for increased sanctions.
Second, what happened before: Russia has a history of handing out passports in territories it has helped break away from other post-Soviet states, particularly Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which became de facto Russian protectorates after the Georgian civil war of 1993, a fait made more accompli when Russia itself went to war with Georgia in 2008 — in part to defend its citizens living in the territories. It’s not hard, then, to understand why the Kremlin’s move has Kyiv on edge.
Third, what has happened elsewhere: Russia is not the only country in the region to play passport politics. [...]
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