Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree fast-tracking Russian citizenship for more Ukrainians, a controversial new move expected to deepen the crisis between the two countries. The latest move comes during a hugely sensitive transitional period in Ukraine where a comedian with no political experience, Volodymyr Zelensky, won a landslide victory in a presidential election last month.
Some analysts see it as a Kremlin test for the new administration in Kiev. Putin had already signed a decree on April 24 allowing people living in breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine to receive a Russian passport.
The Russian president said last weekend he was "thinking" about providing citizenship to "all citizens of Ukraine," sparking fury in Kiev. The new Kremlin decree published Wednesday said several categories of Ukrainian nationals will have the right to receive a Russian passport within three months of applying for one.
Those categories include Ukrainians who already have Russian residence permits and Ukrainian citizens who were born in Crimea but left the peninsula before Russia annexed it in March, 2014.
Around 3 million Ukrainians reside in Russia. The fast-track procedure is implemented to protect "rights and human and civil freedoms", said the decree which Putin signed on Monday. There were hopes bilateral ties might improve under a Zelensky presidency but that is now looking unlikely, analysts say.
The Kremlin has not congratulated Zelensky and said it was too early to say if it can work with the 41-year-old political novice. Zelensky is due to take office by early June.
Some in Kiev and the West worry that Moscow's offer of citizenship to Ukrainians would give the Kremlin a justification to freely move troops across the border under the pretext of protecting the interests of Russian nationals.