On these days in a meeting with the representatives of the diplomatic corps, President Vladimir Putin stated that it is necessary to simplify the procedure of granting Russian citizenship to those people who were born in the Soviet territory.
This idea of Putin who is set to promote integration in the post-soviet territory is clear. Russia is ready to grant citizenship to everyone who leaves a post-soviet country to work in Russia.
These people, the so-called migrant workers, face a lot of issues relating to registration and right to live. They would love to accept Russian citizenship if the procedure is simplified.
What will it mean if the migrant workers become citizens of Russia? They will cut their ties with their homeland. The psychological split will be set down in a document, becoming irrevocable.
So, the situation will be like this. It will appear as if the country is sustained by remittances of its own citizens but of Russian citizens. It seems that the difference is just the status, while in reality there is a difference with a deep, psychological and even physical consequence because the Russian citizens will be followed by their relatives too.
So, Russia thus resolves its demographic issue, at least partly, and on the other hand, it boosts its influence on the countries the citizens of which it seizes.
This issue is also facing Armenia. Thousands Armenian citizens leave to work in Russia. If they have the opportunity to receive Russian citizenship in a simplified way, no doubt they will take along their families to Russia too.
For Armenia, which has serious demographic issues, this is a real challenge, especially taking into account the fact that about 70% of Armenians is “crazy” about Russia.
So, Putin’s aim seems to contradict the state interest of Armenia making it face a serious challenge.
At the same time, Putin pushes the idea of the Eurasian Union. It is not ruled out that in a few years the concept of the Eurasian citizen will be established, on which Russia’s migration policies will be based which will say it makes no difference to which country the Eurasian citizen belongs to.
It seems official Armenia is against the Eurasian Union. In his article published in the Russian press, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan stated that Armenia will not benefit from the Eurasian Union because it does not have a common border with its other members, while the deepening of Armenia’s economic relations with the European Union are important since the criteria and standards of space will boost Armenia’s economy and competitiveness.
At the same time, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party assumed to advocate the idea of the Eurasian Union in Armenia by means of the Armenian-Russian NGO which he heads.
No doubt, Russia will try to force this idea to Armenia otherwise the Caucasus will be left out of the Eurasian Union at all, which would mean failure for Putin’s foreign policy.
One of the methods to be applied to enforce the idea will be the “theft” of Armenian citizens by Russia as hostages to promote the Eurasian Union idea.
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