The Council of the EU and the European Parliament agreed not to recognize Russian travel documents issued in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia. Now this decision remains to be legally formalized.
The press service of the Council of the EU writes about this.
"This decision is a response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s practice of issuing Russian international passports to residents of the occupied regions. It also follows Russia’s unilateral decision to recognise the independence of the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008," it said.
The EU explained that Russian documents will not be accepted as valid documents for obtaining a visa or crossing Schengen borders. They emphasized that such a decision is necessary to establish a general approach regarding Russian documents.
- In Mariupol, which was temporarily captured by the Russian military, all state employees were obliged to hand in their Ukrainian passports and obtain a Russian one by January 1. Today, more than 100,000 residents remain in Mariupol, and before the invasion, approximately 500,000 lived there.
- Russia pursues a policy of forced passporting of the population in the occupied territories. People who refuse Russian passports are restricted in their rights, are not hired, and may even be denied various social services or benefits.