Moldova’s Maia Sandu links Putin’s decree on Russian citizenship for residents of Transnistria to recruitment effort for the war in Ukraine

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said at a security conference in Tallinn that Vladimir Putin’s decision to simplify Russian citizenship procedures for residents of Transnistria may be tied to the Kremlin’s efforts to recruit more people for the war in Ukraine, Politico reported on May 16.

“Probably they need more people to send to the war in Ukraine,” Sandu said, referring to Putin’s decree. She said many residents of the region had sought Moldovan citizenship after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion because they “felt safer” holding Moldovan citizenship rather than Russian citizenship.

Sandu also said Moscow is using Transnistria to pressure Moldova as Chișinău seeks to reintegrate the region. Asked whether the Transnistria conflict could affect Moldova’s EU accession, she said any decision on membership rests with the EU and that “Russia has nothing to do with it.”

Putin signed a decree May 15 introducing a separate procedure for residents of Transnistria to obtain Russian citizenship. Under the decree, adult residents of the region can apply for Russian citizenship without permanently residing in Russia or proving knowledge of the Russian language.

A simplified procedure for residents of Transnistria to obtain Russian passports had existed before, but it did not apply to everyone. According to figures previously cited by the unrecognized region’s authorities and the Russian state-controlled news agency TASS, at least 220,000 Transnistrian residents already hold Russian passports.

Transnistria is a breakaway region of Moldova that emerged after a 1992 armed conflict between Chișinău and Tiraspol. Moldovan authorities refer to it as the “Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova” and insist on preserving the country’s territorial integrity, while the unrecognized authorities in Tiraspol consider Transnistria a separate state.