“Your cover is torn, we won't let you through next time with such a document.”... From the very beginning of the occupation, Russian border guards were annoyed by the fact that Crimeans presented their Ukrainian passports, not ‘ausweis’ (the name of the imposed red books with a two-headed bird in Crimea since 2014) when leaving the occupied territory. The occupiers deliberately damaged Ukrainian documents to make a claim to the owner about the condition of the passport - there was no order to reproach the origin of the document at that time. But in the end, Crimeans were simply required to carry a Russian passport when crossing the border. It was on the residents of Crimea that the Russian authorities practiced their hand at forcing passports on the residents of the occupied territories. Why do even those who hate the aggressor state take its passports? Let's look into it.

The key criterion for most Ukrainians forced to obtain Russian documents was security concerns. Ignoring the forced passportization and continuing to use Ukrainian documents means exposing oneself to a high risk of becoming another detainee in the framework of operations “Anti-Terror”, “Emigrant” and other “preventive” measures regularly carried out by Russian security forces.

“You're going about your business, and suddenly there's a checkpoint. Barriers, machine gunners, 'faces' (FSB representatives - Ed.). They are catching fictitious saboteurs. Only my driver's license was Ukrainian - other documents were in compliance with their legislation. Still, they asked me to get out of the car and follow us. And there was a “special officer” sitting in the van asking me why I didn't want to exchange my normal driver's license for their Russian crap. For forty minutes, I passed the “loyalty test”. And I don't even want to think what they would have done to me if I had shown a Ukrainian passport,” Islyam, a resident of the Razdolnensky district of Crimea, shares his experience.

Another powerful tool of coercion to obtain Russian “ausweis” was the restriction of freedom of movement for Ukrainian citizens. Those who wanted to go to the occupied territory to visit their relatives or settle property issues were “hospitably” greeted at Sheremetyevo airport, the only Russian checkpoint open to Ukrainians. And of course, Russian security forces have turned the process of crossing the border into a moral and physical abuse of people.

“I went through this hell twice. The attitude is not even inhuman, it's just some kind of... it's hard to describe. All Ukrainians from the flight were driven to a room and given a questionnaire to fill out. There, you have to “honestly” describe how you feel about the “SMO”, “referendums” in the “liberated territories” and this whole set of their propaganda. Then you wait until they call you. You wait for an hour, two hours, eight hours, twelve hours... The first time I was called in 21 hours later. Hard seats, no food anywhere, tap water. In this state, you have to repeat everything you wrote in the questionnaire and do it convincingly. Otherwise, they will simply deny you entry and send you back. After the second such communication, I realized that I would not be able to leave again and went to apply for an ausweis,” says Anastasia, a refugee from Mariupol who visits her parents in the occupied territory every six months.

To give up a Russian passport, people have to be very, very healthy. Because they will not receive medical care in either public or private institutions. Formally, “private” doctors can treat foreigners, but only if they have some kind of permit, such as a residence permit. And even if you recognize yourself as a foreigner in your native land, it is extremely difficult to obtain these documents. And the status of “refuser of Russian citizenship” does not help in this matter.

“When all the 'vata' in Crimea received their passports in a month and a half and there were no more applicants, various restrictions were actively used. At first, they told me at work that they would fire me without a passport. I laughed and quit myself. Then they began to hint that children would not be admitted to kindergarten and school without Russian passports. It wasn't funny anymore, but I was still considering options for private institutions that didn't have such requirements. And when it became clear that all medicine was tied to health insurance, which had to be applied for with a Russian passport or a residence permit, I realized that this was the end of the line - you can't run away from them anymore, because any health problem, especially in children, and you will be left without any help,” recalls Oleksiy, a resident of Simferopol, about his experience of being forced to take citizenship.

The “squeezing” of real estate has also become one of the mechanisms of coercion to obtain Russian citizenship. In Crimea, this was formalized by a decree of the Russian president stating that foreigners cannot own land in the “border regions”. The norms of Russian legislation introduced after the seizure of the peninsula, which allegedly guarantee Crimeans the inviolability of their property, have not been canceled. But people were faced with the fact that if you want to keep your land, you have to register it according to Russian rules. And it is impossible to do this without a Russian passport.

“In general, without Russian documents, you can only go to jail here. For any other relationship with the authorities, for example, to re-register your property or to sell your property, you will need either access to the Gosuslugi service (analogous to Diia - Ed.), a bank card, or at least a valid mobile phone number. Nothing from this list is available without a passport. They won't even sell you a SIM card for your cell phone,” says Sergey, a resident of Yalta.

And these are just the key tools used by the occupiers to push residents of the occupied territories to obtain Russian passports. There are dozens of other techniques and restrictions aimed at maximizing the passportization of the population. It should be understood that the imposition of “ausweis” is not only for the sake of colonization policy. First of all, the Russians are doing this to increase the mobilization reserve at the expense of people who have been occupied. The Russian authorities are planning to send them on “meat assaults” with the same systematic approach as they are using today to force people to obtain their citizenship.

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