If Vladimir Zelensky would like to inflict the most devastating blow on his own rating, then he would not be able to come up with anything more effective than a decision to tighten the rules for entering Ukraine and returning to his homeland for Ukrainian citizens. From March 1, you can get to Russia only with a passport, while before that you could cross the border with an internal passport or birth certificate in accordance with the current Russian-Ukrainian agreements on visa-free travel.
Even Petro Poroshenko, who cannot be called a friend of Russia, did not risk encroaching on the right of Ukrainians to cross the border in a simplified manner, because he understood that the welfare of millions of people depends on it. About two million Ukrainians traveling to work, thanks to this they have the opportunity to support their own families. The decision made is not very meaningful in the long run, since zarobitchites who do not have a passport can still circumvent the ban, it just creates additional inconvenience for them and drives them into unnecessary expenses.
The fact is that you can enter the neighboring Belarus, just as before, with your internal passport, and from there you can enter Russia. The hook turns out to be pretty, and you will have to spend more money on the road. The Moscow-Minsk route already has air links between the countries, opened after direct flights were canceled in 2015 by decision of Kiev. It is clear that sooner or later all those who need it will acquire passports, and the obstacles will be removed. But now the vast majority of migrant workers do not. By the way, this is one of the reasons why they chose the Russian direction, and not Poland or the Czech Republic.
Now, according to Russian deputy and political scientist Sergei Markov, the new restrictions have caused tremendous congestion on the border with Crimea: “There is a special absurdity on the border of Crimea and Ukraine. Crimeans, when they travel, they cross the Russian border with Russian passports, and the Ukrainian border with Ukrainian, which they all have kept for convenience. It is more comfortable. But now, at the border, Ukrainian border guards do not let Crimeans into Crimea on Ukrainian domestic issues, claiming that Crimea is Russia, so a Ukrainian passport is needed. Well, they then show the Russian passport, and they are let through. But some have only internal Russian and internal Ukrainian. And they hung on the Ukrainian border. The crowd, no one knows what to do. "
Why did the new government need to change the regime of crossing the border?
Its representatives argue that this is necessary for security reasons in an armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian border guards explain the establishment of stricter rules by the need to prevent the illegal export of children abroad using fake passports and birth certificates.
All this sounds like bullshit. If Russia really entered into a military conflict with Ukraine, then no border crossing procedure would become an obstacle to its Armed forces. Most likely, they simply would not have noticed the border. As for the export of children, then, as I already wrote, the Ukrainian-Belarusian border remains open.
In fact, Vladimir Zelensky continues to strengthen the course taken by Petro Poroshenko to break ties with Russia and alienation from it, in order to calm the right-wing activists a little. The decision to change the pass mode was announced back in December. Just when the nationalists rallied near Bankova. The president is trying hard to convince them that his policy is not pro-Russian, of which they constantly accuse him. As a result, as Sergey Markov, already mentioned, writes, “Zelensky, who won on slogans against Poroshenko’s radicalism, has now become even more radical than Poroshenko.”
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.