Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the intensification of the distribution of Russian passports to residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine so that they can vote in the presidential elections that the country will hold in 2024, according to information that Ukrainian military intelligence claims to have obtained.
According to information from the Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine (GUR), the order was transmitted in a meeting to the heads of the occupation authority imposed by Russia in the areas it controls in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Kremlin declared that these regions are part of the Russian Federation and therefore their inhabitants will be called to the polls in the next presidential elections. “The meeting was led by the deputy head of Putin’s administration, Sergey Kirienko,” GUR said in a statement.
In addition to distributing more passports, Kirienko reportedly ordered more social aid from regional budgets and intensified propaganda about the good performance of the Russian economy, the stability of the ruble and the improvement of living standards in the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainian government and army and many citizens who arrived in Kiev-controlled territory from the occupied territories complain that Russia only offers social benefits to those who accept Russian citizenship in the occupied areas.
With this measure, the Kremlin intends to consolidate its control over the territory it occupies in the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya.
Since 2014, when it annexed the peninsula, Russia has also controlled Crimea, which remains, on paper, an autonomous republic within Ukraine. (EFE Agency)