Putin Extends Hand of Friendship, Offer of Citizenship to the Ukrainian People

The strongman delivered. Again. That’s another point for team Authoritarian if you’re keeping score at home. Yes indeed, after nearly a decade of the Duma sitting around and sucking its thumb, Putin stepped in and passed a law that should have been effected at least in 2014 if not earlier.

I had pretty much given up on the hope that Russia would offer Ukrainians Russian citizenship because it was a policy that simple made too much sense and would be far too beneficial for Russia and therefore, would almost certainly be sabotaged by chinovniks and politicians.

I should have had more faith in our man in the high castle. Putin got it done.

After us, silence.

But what does this mean?

Well, Kiev likes to portray this war as a genocidal extermination campaign launched by the Russians. Now, it will be much harder to portray it as such. After all, who hands out citizenships that guarantee equal rights and protections under the law to a people that they plan to mass-murder? This is a powerful counter-propaganda move. Russia is saying, “come home, Ukrainian man. We see you as brothers. Your government is illegitimate, but our future as one people lies together.”

Of course it would be nice to actually make the unspoken part spoken by, well, speaking it. But then if the Kremlin were any good at effectively communicating with the peasantry, I’d be out of a blogging hobby, so I’m not complaining.

Previously, Russia pursued the heartless strategy of not offering citizenship to marooned Russians in the FSU territories. The logic was that, if, say, the Russians in the Baltics were given citizenship, they’d leave the Baltics and move to Russia proper, and reduce Russia’s (virtually non-existent) influence there. Better to keep them stuck in the near abroad despite the fact that these people were having a hard time. I hope that the citizenship offer will be extended to the marooned Russians in all of the FSU territories, followed by annexation of course. Northern Kazakhstan, in particular, was always Southern Siberia and stolen from Russia in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR.

When Zelensky deliberately implemented a Volkssturm strategy to get as many Slavs killed and to turn the population against Russia permanently by forcing them to get their hands dirty, Putin replied in kind by implementing a “Return to the Motherland” strategy to give Ukrainians a choice and an out. Now, many Ukrainians will be able to deliberately choose between siding with ZOG or siding with Russia. May they choose wisely.

Now, in Russia proper, many Ukrainians have been getting harassed by the FSB - some for legitimate reasons, others to fill up secret police quotas. There was some mixed messaging since the start of the operation to be sure. In Russia, however, one has the right to declare one’s nationality on official government forms. And when the FSB decided to swoop in on me, I declared myself Russian on the slips of paper that they pushed at me. Lo and behold though, when I was handed the official documents with my sentence and punishment written on them, I saw that they had declared me a Ukrainian instead. Funny enough, a recent effort by the Kiev government (started before the war) did away with the option to declare one’s nationality in one’s official ID documents. In other words, one could consider themselves a Russian or Hungarian living in Ukraine, but one would now be labeled a Ukrainian by the government regardless. Essentially, Zelensky’s government denied Russians their right to self-identify as Russians and declared them to be Ukrainians despite their protestation. Seems to me that the FSB that detained me were in full agreement with Mr. Zelensky on this particular policy. Curious that.

Anyways.

Yes, I plan to apply. I called the embassy where I live, but no one picked up the phone. I went on the website to schedule an appointment, but the site was down. I’ll try again tomorrow and the next day and find out for myself whether the bureaucracy is sabotaging Putin’s efforts or not. I expect it to be an arduous process full of repeat visits and having to procure difficult-to-acquire documents and dealing with impossible tart ladies in pantsuits eager to deny applicants. But I’m more than willing to be pleasantly surprised and to push through regardless to accomplish my goal and see for myself if the offer is tangible and real.

Once again, I’m grateful that Putin is the President and that the West is forcing Russia to start getting serious.