Passportization#Georgia
{{Short description|Mass conferral of citizenship by distributing passports}}
{{About|modern efforts by a country to induce residents of another to take up its citizenship|the Soviet practice of mandating citizens identity papers (internal passports)|Propiska in the Soviet Union}}
{{globalize|article|the Russian Federation|date=June 2022|discuss=Talk:Passportization#Globalize}}
Passportization is defined as the mass conferral of citizenship to the population of a particular foreign territory by distributing passports, generally within a relatively short period.{{Cite journal|last=Nagashima|first=Toru|date=2019-05-04|title=Russia's Passportization Policy toward Unrecognized Republics|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2017.1388182|journal=Problems of Post-Communism|volume=66|issue=3|pages=186–199|doi=10.1080/10758216.2017.1388182|s2cid=158167424 |issn=1075-8216}}{{Cite journal|last=Artman|first=Vincent M.|date=2013-07-01|title=Documenting Territory: Passportisation, Territory, and Exception in Abkhazia and South Ossetia|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2013.769963|journal=Geopolitics|volume=18|issue=3|pages=682–704|doi=10.1080/14650045.2013.769963|s2cid=144134462 |issn=1465-0045}}{{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Patrick R. |title=Völkerrechtliche Vorgaben für die Verleihung der Staatsangehörigkeit |date=2022 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen |isbn=978-3-16-161110-0 |pages=147–152}} This policy has primarily been used by Russian authorities who have provided easy access for persons, usually holders of former Soviet passports, to apply for Russian passports.{{Citation|last=Ganohariti|first=Ramesh|title=Politics of Passportization and Territorial Conflicts|date=2020|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_182-1|encyclopedia=The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies|pages=1–8|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_182-1|isbn=978-3-030-11795-5|s2cid=239978550 |access-date=2021-06-19}} The basis for these naturalizations is Art. 14 Russian Citizenship Act, amended in 2002, which allows naturalization in a simplified procedure.{{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Patrick R. |title=Völkerrechtliche Vorgaben für die Verleihung der Staatsangehörigkeit |date=2022 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen |isbn=978-3-16-161110-0 |pages=149}} In particular, the requirement of five years' residence on Russian territory is suspended for former citizens of the Soviet Union, Art. 14 para. 4 Russian Citizenship Act.
As the number of Russian passport holders in regions of adjoining nations grows, Russia then invokes its national interest in defending its citizens by promoting the independence or annexation of these regions.{{Citation|last=Ganohariti|first=Ramesh|title=Politics of Passportization and Territorial Conflicts|date=2020|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_182-1|encyclopedia=The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies|pages=1–8|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_182-1|isbn=978-3-030-11795-5|s2cid=239978550 |access-date=2021-06-19}} This process has been most common in Georgia and Ukraine.
Georgia
In Georgia this occurred in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,{{cite web|url=http://www.osce.org/home/73289 |title=Human Rights in the Occupied Territories of Georgia |publisher=Osce.org |accessdate=October 30, 2012}} where residents continued to be the citizens of Soviet Union and kept Soviet passports even a decade after the break-up of the Soviet Union.{{cite web |publisher=Institute for War & Peace Reporting |author=Inal Khashig |url=http://iwpr.net/report-news/abkhaz-rush-russian-passports |title=Abkhaz Rush For Russian Passports |date=2002-06-27 |access-date=2014-03-14 |archive-date=2014-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222164131/http://iwpr.net/report-news/abkhaz-rush-russian-passports |url-status=dead }} In 2002, a new Citizenship Law of Russia simplified acquisition of citizenship for any citizen of the Soviet Union, regardless current place of residence. In Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian nationalist non-governmental organizations such as the Congress of Russian Communities of Abkhazia carried papers to a nearby Russian city for processing so that residents did not need to travel to obtain Russian citizenship.{{cite web|publisher=Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/russian-georgia-war.php |title=Russian Federation: Legal Aspects of War in Georgia | date=}} By June 25, 2002, approximately 150,000 Abkhazians had gained Russian citizenship in addition to the 50,000 who already possessed it, with the blessing of authorities in Sokhumi. The Georgian Foreign Ministry denounced the passport allocation as an “unprecedented illegal campaign”. On February 1, 2011, Soviet passports were no longer considered valid for crossing the Russian-Abkhaz border.{{cite web |publisher=GeorgiaTimes |author=Anton Krivenuk |url=http://www.georgiatimes.info/en/analysis/50360.html |title=Abkhaz Rush For Russian Passports |date=2011-02-01 |access-date=2014-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222032955/http://www.georgiatimes.info/en/analysis/50360.html |archive-date=2014-02-22 |url-status=dead }}
In April 2009, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities stated there was "pressure being exercised on the Georgian population in the Gali District through the limitation of their education rights, compulsory "passportization", forced conscription into the Abkhaz military forces and restrictions on their freedom of movement."[http://www.osce.org/item/37226.html OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities deeply concerned by recent developments in Abkhazia]. OSCE Press Release. 14 April 2009 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924110958/http://www.osce.org/item/37226.html |date=24 September 2015 }} An effort to force ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia to take on Abkhaz citizenship was rebuffed in 2009.[http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=21375 Head of Abkhaz NSC Resigns]. Civil Georgia. 18 August 2009
Russia's extraterritorial naturalization practice in South Ossetia and Abkhazia since 2002 constitutes an intervention contrary to international law and violates Georgia's territorial sovereignty.{{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Patrick R. |title=Völkerrechtliche Vorgaben für die Verleihung der Staatsangehörigkeit |date=2022 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen |isbn=978-3-16-161110-0 |pages=277–284}}
Ukraine
Russia has been naturalizing people in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk on a large scale since 2019.{{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Patrick R. |title=Völkerrechtliche Vorgaben für die Verleihung der Staatsangehörigkeit |date=2022 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen |isbn=978-3-16-161110-0 |pages=149}} This became possible after Art. 29 para. 1.1 Russian Citizenship Act was inserted by law of 27 December 2018. This provision empowers the Russian President to establish categories of foreign citizens and stateless persons eligible to apply for Russian citizenship under the simplified procedure. By Decree No. 183 of 24 April 2019, residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions became eligible accordingly.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, forced passportization has also been done against Ukrainians in the occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.[https://visitukraine.today/blog/716/forced-passportization-of-ukrainians-in-the-temporarily-occupied-territories-why-one-should-not-take-a-russian-passport "Forced passportization in the temporarily occupied territories: why one should not take a Russian passport"], VisitUkraine, 14 August 2022