Putin has made it easier for residents of Transnistria to obtain Russian citizenship. In Chisinau they commented

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on simplified admission to Russian citizenship for residents of the self-proclaimed Transnistria region.

The document was published on the official legal information portal.

The decree provides that for residents of Transnistria the requirements for a five-year residence in Russia, confirmation of knowledge of the Russian language, the history of Russia and the fundamentals of the country's legislation are canceled.

The document states that it was adopted “ in order to protect the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, guided by generally recognized principles and norms of international law .”

Moldovan President Maia Sandu criticized this decision of the Russian authorities, emphasizing that “ they probably need more people to send to the war in Ukraine ,” POLITICO reports.

According to her, this step by Moscow may be caused by Chisinau’s efforts to reintegrate Transnistria. At the same time, Sandu said, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, “ most people from this region received Moldovan citizenship because they felt safer having the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova rather than Russian citizenship .”

This statement cannot be independently verified due to the lack of statistics on the admission of Moldovan citizenship to residents of Transnistria.