PoliticsMay 16, 2026 2:32 am • 2 min readPeople carry a Russian flag (C) and a flag with a portrait of Vladimir Putin reading “We are for Putin!” in Tiraspol, Transnistria, Moldova, on May 9, 2014. (Vadim Denisov / AFP via Getty Images)Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the citizenship process for residents of Moldova's Russian-occupied Transnistria.Eligible applicants can skip Russian residency requirements, history and civic tests, and can forego proving proficiency in the Russian language.Russian proxies that have controlled the territory since the 1990's rely heavily on Moscow's support and have appealed to Russia for assistance in the past.Moscow has long used passportization mechanisms to exert influence over populations in occupied territories and regions controlled by Russian proxies.Putin has issued similar decrees in the past. In May 2025, Moscow simplified the process to obtain Russian citizenship for residents of Georgia's Russian-occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.The map of Moldova and Russian-occupied Transnistria. (Lisa Kukharska/The Kyiv Independent)On March 4, Putin signed a decree that indefinitely extends a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship in Ukraine's occupied territories."The goal of the new decree is to passportize as many people as possible, pressuring them," Nataliia Yurlova, lawyer for non-governmental organization Donbas SOS, told the Kyiv Independent.Meanwhile, occupation authorities force parents in occupied Kherson Oblast to obtain Russian passports or risk losing parental rights, the Center of National Resistance reported on July 30.