Residents of Donbas have received Russian citizenship en masse over the past two years. More than half a million people have been issued Russian passports.
The Russian Interior Ministry said that citizenship was issued to residents of Donbas not under the standard procedure, but under a simplified one. This was done in accordance with a decree by Vladimir Putin, which the Russian president signed in 2019.
During this time, more than 527,000 people received Russian citizenship. However, almost 2,000 residents of Donbass were denied Russian passports. The Interior Ministry noted that 40 per cent of the applications were rejected because of restrictions on entry into Russia for those who applied.
A third of the "rejected" applicants were people with an unexpunged criminal record. A quarter of the residents were categorized as a threat to Russia's security.
Photo: from open sources