Exit control: what is known about the ban for Ukrainians to travel to Russia with an internal passport

From March 1, 2020, citizens of Ukraine will have to travel to Russia with foreign passports. The corresponding decision was made by the Ukrainian government, said Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk.

“From March 1, 2020, border crossing with the Russian Federation will be carried out on the basis of a passport, but only for Ukrainian citizens traveling from Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation,” Goncharuk quoted Ukrainian media as saying.

He specified that when citizens return to Ukraine from Russia, an internal passport or birth certificate will be enough to pass. According to the Ukrainian prime minister, such a rule will facilitate the passage of the Russian-Ukrainian border.

This upcoming initiative was previously announced by the Director of the Consular Services Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Sergey Pogoreltsev.

In early December, he told UNIAN news agency that the draft Cabinet resolution provides for the suspension of the provisions of the agreements with the Russian Federation in the years 1997 and 2011.

In these documents, under the conditions of visa-free travel, the use of an internal passport and birth certificate (for children under 16 years of age) is indicated.

Speaking about the arguments that served as the basis for the revision of the rules, Pogoreltsev pointed out to journalists the data of the Administration of the State Border Service of Ukraine. According to him, the agency records the annual growth of detected fakes of both internal passports and birth certificates.

Pogoreltsev noted that the previously simplified regime of travel of Ukrainians in Russia "is not adequate to threats to the national security of Ukraine."

• RIA News

According to RT sources in the Ukrainian ruling circles, such measures are unlikely to positively affect the positions of the current authorities.

“The state does not welcome Ukrainians traveling to Russia. There is no warming between the countries, therefore everything that is possible is toughened up, ”the interlocutor of RT believes in the Ukrainian party“ Servant of the people ”.

The Voice party was surprised at the passport innovation amid the fact that the presidents of Russia and Ukraine Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky recently sat down at the negotiating table. The political association indicated that people were waiting for a warming in relations between the two countries.

“For example, this could be the resumption of direct flights between countries and the lifting of the ban on Russian airlines flying through Ukraine,” an RT source in the Voice party said.

Source RT in the "Fatherland" pointed out that the design of foreign transport is not available to all, without exception, Ukrainians.

“About 2 million Ukrainians work in Russia, many go to relatives. I think everyone understands that not all people, and especially pensioners, have a passport and, moreover, an opportunity to apply for it. I would like to inform the government that this service is paid and amounts to 682 UAH ($ 30), which is a third of the pension, ”the party said, noting that such an approach would quickly lower Zelensky’s rating.

Political scientist Ivan Mezuho also believes that it is ordinary people who will feel the consequences of innovations.

“I think that this inadequate decision affects the citizens of Ukraine themselves, labor migrants who work on the territory of Russia,” the expert said in an interview with RT.

In his opinion, this decision of the Ukrainian government "does not fit in with the request of the Ukrainian people for peace and the stabilization of the Ukrainian economy."

“The initiative is unhealthy, it does not create the soil for the normalization of relations between Kiev and Moscow. On the contrary, the decision of the Ukrainian government only aggravates the interstate dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, does not contribute to the establishment of relations between our states, ”Mezyuho concluded. At the same time, he is sure that Russia will not respond.

In Ukraine, we recall, a ban was introduced on entry into the country for men from Russia aged 16 to 60 years. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said last December, Moscow will not impose restrictions on citizens of Ukraine.

“We will not introduce any restrictions on citizens of Ukraine. Moreover, we, on the contrary, will follow the path of liberalizing the stay of Ukrainian citizens in our territory and liberalizing their Russian citizenship if one of them wants it, ”he said.

We add that later, in April 2019, Putin introduced a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship by residents of the unrecognized republics of Donbass. In early December 2019, it became known that about 125 thousand people took advantage of this opportunity.