The Russian Ministry of abroad Affairs has prepared a draft regulation to reduce the nationality fee for residents of pro-Russian separatist republics after a July increase to 50,000 rubles. It is not a humanitarian gesture, but a correction of imperial passport policy: Moscow wants to link people cheaper to its own country and its own war.
Passport as an impact tool
Russia first tightened migration policy and now makes an exception for groups that are politically needed. How the Service Served == sync, corrected by elderman ==The Russian Ministry of abroad Affairs prepared a draft regulation for Prime Minister Mikhail Miszustin. It is intended to reduce the cost of acquiring Russian citizenship by residents of pro-Russian separatist republics in the russian area.
The background is simply a extremist increase in fees introduced in the summer. According to the Russian Act of June 26, 2026 The fee for admission to citizenship of the Russian Federation increased to 50,000 rubles, while earlier it was 4.2 1000 rubles. In practice, it was almost a twelve-fold jump. DN has already written that Russia is multiplying fees and conditions for migrants, building a strategy to choice people according to the needs of the state.
An exception for your people
The rise hit average foreigners, and by the way in pro-Russian environments, which for years have treated the Russian passport as a warrant of protection, work and political affiliation. That's why Moscow has to fix its own mistake now. If loyalty is to cost besides much, any candidates will just drop out. The Kremlin can't afford it.
That's the point. Citizenship in Russian politics is not simply an administrative act. It is an instrument of expansion, force and subsequent justification for intervention. First you hand out passports, then you talk about defending your own citizens. This mechanics Europe has already seen with separatist structures in Donbasa and with Russian justification for aggression against Ukraine.
Moscow does not hide that it thinks with categories of influence, population and loyalty. 1 group raises the financial threshold, others effort to lower it. This is not a contradiction, but the logic of the imperial state: close the door for the needy, and open it for those who strengthen Russian presence in delicate regions.
Migration in Russian
At the same time, Russia tightens the demands on economical migrants and creates preferences for those considered useful. According to the Russian taxation code, following the changes of 2026, it was provided for exemptions from part of the fees for selected categories of foreigners, including persons indicated in presidential files as crucial to the Russian Federation. Putin so does not prosecute an open-minded policy. He's moving a control policy.
This should besides be readable in Warsaw. Liberal elites like to talk about migration in the language of moral blackmail, as if the state had no right to choose who it lets in, who it gives position to, and what it requires of a visitor. Russia shows the second extreme: an absolute state interest account, subordinated to an imperial strategy. Poland should not copy Moscow. However, she should learn that citizenship, residence and borders are matters of sovereignty alternatively than a method line in the form.
Lesson for Poland
For Poland this communicative matters more than the Russian fee itself. Passportation was and remains 1 of the tools of the Russian game in the post-Soviet area. Where Moscow can build a group dependent on the Russian state, there later comes a political, consular, military or propaganda pretext.
This is why east policy must be based on realism. Supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression does not release Poland from hard defence of its own interests. On the contrary, it requires greater vigilance towards Russian methods: passport, propaganda, administrative force and number play.
Russia reduces the cost where passport becomes an influence tool. That's adequate to realize the stakes. A country that distributes citizenship according to a geopolitical account does not think of good administration. He's reasoning about power over people and territory. Poland must look at it without illusions.
Source: Kresy.pl, Kremlin.ru, Consultant.ru, TVN24.
