Russia is expanding the activities of its political parties and plans to hold elections in September 2023 in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The Kremlin believes that this will legalize the process of occupation. Ukrainians who remained to live and work in the occupied territories are forced to obtain Russian passports, which also contributes to their integration into Russian society. And in order to change the demographic composition of the Ukrainian regions, the Russian government encourages its citizens to move to live in the newly captured regions, promising cheap mortgages..

Russia also plans to complete the process of integrating regions into its legal field five times faster than in Crimea.. They are already imposing Russian standards in education, medicine and taxation.

Below we tell what Russia has already done and how Ukraine can counteract this..

Russia Plans to Hold Elections in the Annexed Territories to Legitimize the Occupation Process.

In early February, the head of the Russian Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, announced that elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories would be held on September 10, 2023, and preparations for them were already underway.. This date was not chosen by chance - it was then that Russia held a " According to the Russian Central Election Commission, almost 60 electoral processes will take place in parallel in September - mainly to the parliaments of the republics and the legislative bodies of Russian cities.. In particular, elections to the "

According to British intelligence, Russia wants to use these elections to justify itself and legitimize the occupation. Pavel Romanyuk, legal adviser of the OPORA Civic Network, shares this opinion.. He believes that these elections are designed to create the illusion of democratic processes in the occupied territories and drag local residents into the Russian electoral field in order to weaken their ties with Ukraine.

According to him, if Russia holds elections in the occupied territories, this will not change anything for Ukraine, because, according to international law, no elections in the occupied territories will legalize the annexation.

However, the lawyer believes that Ukraine should oppose the holding of such " Of course, the best option would be to liberate these territories, but while this process is underway, you can use other tools. First of all, Ukraine should continue to advocate for increased international pressure on Russia.. It is necessary to achieve recognition of such elections as worthless at the level of the UN General Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other international institutions.

In addition, according to Pavel Romanyuk, our country should use the tools available in its national jurisdiction. We are talking about bringing to justice people involved in organizing illegal elections or publicly calling for them.. “What needs to be done? First of all, inform the local population that Ukraine will soon liberate the occupied territories, so that they do not take part in the organization of these illegal elections in any way, because responsibility is provided for this, ”the lawyer believes..

The lawyer adds that initiatives are being discussed in the expert community and among people's deputies to review the composition of criminal offenses related to collaboration activities. According to him, it is necessary to make it possible to effectively bring to justice not only the organizers of such “votes”, but also other people involved in this process..

Since the Russian CEC is preparing to hold elections in Ukrainian territories, the political parties of the aggressor country are also not sleeping. They develop their networks in the occupied regions with a focus on future elections. For example, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia opened its regional offices in several cities of the Donetsk region, which is formally oppositional, but fully supports the aggressive policy of Vladimir Putin.

However, the most serious work in this direction is being carried out by the pro-government United Russia.. The party has already registered its offices in all four occupied Ukrainian regions. Key Ukrainian state traitors received important positions from them.. This means that it is United Russia that wants to win these elections, if Russia still manages to hold them..

In the Donetsk region, the leader of the " As for the Kherson region, a Russian, deputy chairman of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Igor Kostyukevich, became its secretary, and the head of the occupation administration of the region, Vladimir Saldo, joined the political council of the party branch.

Ukrainian law enforcers suspect all these people of high treason.. After Ukraine liberates the occupied territories, the traitors will spend at least the next 15 years in prison, where they will have time to rethink their actions..

Russia continues forced passportization and provides preferential mortgages for its citizens to come to the occupied territories.

Another element of integration is the forced issuance of Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens remaining in the occupied territories.. However, this process is characterized by some differences in different territories.. In some areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, occupied back in 2014, Russian passports began to be distributed in 2019. Since then, according to various sources, more than 600,000 Ukrainian citizens have received them..

And forced passportization in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions began in May 2022, when Putin signed a decree on the simplified granting of Russian citizenship to residents of these regions of Ukraine.. In addition, a bill was recently registered in the State Duma that simplifies the procedure for renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship.. If it is accepted, in order to obtain a Russian passport, it will only be necessary to submit an application to the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation - for example, online through the Gosuslug portal.

Despite all the efforts of the Russians, voluntary passportization in Ukrainian territories does not go according to plan, so the occupiers resort to intimidation and pressure. State employees became the first victim of forced passportization - teachers and doctors are threatened with dismissal if they do not take a Russian passport. This happened, for example, in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

In addition to state employees, ordinary residents and entrepreneurs were under pressure. So, in the Kherson region since the beginning of March, the occupiers have been threatening to evict all Ukrainian citizens who will not receive Russian passports.. Collaborator Vladimir Saldo said that by the beginning of the " In Mariupol, from March 1, entrepreneurs who do not receive Russian passports will not be able to work..

However, the Russians are not limited to this.. They force employees of state institutions who have already received Russian passports to renounce Ukrainian citizenship. For refusal, again, they are threatened with dismissal from their jobs, although Russian legislation allows dual citizenship.

The Center for National Resistance explains such actions by the fact that Russia needs renunciation of citizenship in order to “strengthen” its rights to the region by changing its demographic composition.. The Center adds that for the same purpose, the aggressor state creates favorable conditions for its citizens who want to move to the occupied territories.. To encourage them, Russia is ready to provide visitors with preferential mortgages to purchase housing on occupied lands..

According to Pavel Romanyuk, the forced acquisition of Russian citizenship by citizens of Ukraine living in the temporarily occupied territory is not recognized by our country and is not a basis for the loss of citizenship of Ukraine. Therefore, residents of the occupied territories remain citizens of Ukraine, even if they are forced to obtain Russian passports due to a threat to their security..

“Our country does not recognize forced passportization by Russia, therefore, our citizens are not responsible for it,” the lawyer emphasizes..

Meanwhile, forced passportization can be used to mobilize the local population into the ranks of the Russian army.. Such mobilization violates international humanitarian law and is a war crime.

Russia vows to quickly integrate occupied territories and distributes free hot meals to elementary school students.

In parallel, Russia is working to integrate the occupied Ukrainian regions into its legal, socio-economic, educational and cultural space.. According to the head of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, it took five years for the integration of Crimea into a single legal field of Russia, but they plan to completely absorb the new territories in just a year..

To this end, the State Duma adopted several new laws.. In particular, Russia establishes control over legal entities in the occupied territories and introduces the Russian system of taxation.. In 2022, all entrepreneurs were included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, and they must adapt their constituent documents in accordance with Russian law. Those who refuse will be banned from doing business.

In addition, Russia decided to create its own judicial system in the occupied regions, establish a special procedure for enforcement proceedings there and extend the norms of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure to these territories.. The aggressor proposes to execute all the proceedings of the Ukrainian courts, for example, the recovery of alimony, but there will be no punishment for people who committed crimes in the interests of the Russian Federation.

In February 2023, the State Duma established a moratorium on debt collection from citizens by banks and microfinance organizations until 2026. However, this will not apply to those who have debts for housing and communal services..

To further weaken the connection of the occupied territories with Ukraine, Russia plans to transfer them to Moscow time.

As for the social sphere, from March 1, Russia plans to distribute rubles to vulnerable segments of the population: pensioners; unemployed; people with disabilities; families or pregnant women who are raising a child under 17; women in connection with pregnancy and childbirth, as well as for the care of a child up to one and a half years. However, not everything is so simple: for these payments, you need to confirm your status in a specially created interdepartmental commission.

The aggressor does not forget about the Soviet past either: in the law on social security in the new territories, they mentioned the heroes of the Soviet Union, full holders of the Order of Glory, heroes of socialist labor, participants in the Great Patriotic War, irradiated at the Mayak production association and the Semipalatinsk test site, etc..

On January 26, the Russian government allocated 1 billion rubles for the unemployed, and another one and a half billion for preventive medical examinations of children.. The State Duma also recognized the qualifications and licenses obtained by doctors and pharmacists in Ukraine, and until the end of 2025 allowed to provide medical care without taking into account clinical recommendations..

The crimes of the invaders did not bypass the education system. The State Duma obliged the educational institutions of the occupied territories to study according to the educational programs of Russia and exempted teachers from certification until September 2024. The Russian Ministry of Education plans to establish a separate procedure for passing final exams for children, and all educational organizations will operate under temporary licenses.

However, this is not the worst. Russian teachers, who arrived in the occupied territories, impose the Kremlin's idea of \u200b\u200bwar on Ukrainian schoolchildren and force them to listen to the Russian anthem. They do this before lessons at the so-called hour about the important, which must be attended.. For example, such cases took place in the occupied Tokmak, Zaporozhye region..

“In addition, the teachers of the aggressor country force children to write letters of support to Russian soldiers. In case of refusal, “preventive conversations” are held with the parents of the children.. Teachers imported from Russia literally dictate what the child should write, and then check what is written, ”the Center for National Resistance reports..

However, we have bad news for Russian teachers: when Ukraine liberates the occupied territories, they, as foreigners, according to Nikolay Khavronyuk, professor and director of scientific development at the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, may be arrested for up to six months or imprisonment.

Also in Russia they promise to provide primary school students with free hot meals and textbooks, and students with scholarships..

To be honest, not a very significant compensation for the lives and fates of Ukrainian children and students destroyed by the war, but the aggressor is not interested in this.. The Russians are building the "

We hope that the final point in these integration processes will be put by the defense forces of Ukraine, which will liberate all the territories of our country.. And it doesn't matter if they do it before the September " The main thing is the result, and it will certainly be.

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