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Opinion
May 3, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 20
KYIV BLOG:
Zelenskiy’s zinger roasts Putin’s offer of passports for all Ukrainians
Ben Aris in Berlin
It’s what you would expect from a professional stand-up comedian: Ukraine’s president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy roasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to grant Russian passports to any Ukrainians that wants one with a mixture of satire and scorn that was at the same time funny and poignant.
Zelenskiy countered Putin’s offer by offering all Russians a Ukrainian passport so they could leave a repressive Russia for the “freedom” of Ukraine. And he has a point.
Only a week since the won the election in a land- slide, and the Kremlin has been testing Zelenskiy, who has come through his first clash with Putin with flying colours. Some observers were hop-
ing that Putin would take the opportunity of a
new, presumably more sympathetic, president in Ukraine as a chance to begin walking the tensions back and start the search for a compromise to end the conflict between the two countries.
But Zelenskiy’s honeymoon period was over after only three days (although he won’t officially take over as president until the inauguration, slated for June 3) after Putin signed a decree to make
it easier for occupants of the war-torn Donbas region to obtain a Russian passport.
Separately the Kremlin has been turning the screws on Kyiv with a ban on oil and coal exports to Ukraine. Despite the de facto state of war between
Ukraine’s president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy roasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to grant a Russian passport to any Ukrainian that wants one.
the two countries Ukraine still imports 80% of its coal, needed to fire power stations, from Russia.
Issuing passports to locals in a region in a foreign country is a particularly aggressive move as it changes the legal status of the passport holder under Russian law. While the vast majority of residents of eastern Ukraine are ethnic Russians, they remain Ukrainian citizens. However, if they hold a Russian passport the Russian constitution obliges the Kremlin to “protect” its citizens’ interests. The same tactic was used in the run- up to the annexation of the former Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Passports become a legal precedent for Russian military intervention.
If Russia annexes Donbas that would be a game-changer and even the threat of annexation significantly increases the tensions between Russia and Ukraine – and by extension Russia and the West. Moreover, Putin’s aggressive moves remove all the leeway Zelenskiy had to “reboot” the peace process as he promised during the election campaign.
Zelenskiy’s zingers
Zelenskiy lampooned Putin’s passport decree with a cutting reply, and significantly undermined fears that his lack of experience was going to hamper him in his dealings with the Kremlin. He said he doubted that any Ukrainians would take Putin up on the offer.