Authorities in ex-Soviet Moldova are struggling to handle a significant increase in applications for citizenship from wartime Russia nationals, as reported on Monday.
A government agency, responsible for dealing with citizenship and passports, has requested the government to extend the time limit for examining applications to six months, instead of the current term of 20 days due to the surge in requests for Moldovan citizenship.
The agency attributed the rise in applications to the geopolitical situation created by Russia’s war against Ukraine, stating that 70 percent of applicants were Russian nationals and 20 percent were Ukrainians.
No specific figures for the numbers seeking citizenship of Moldova were provided by the agency, which acknowledged that this increase is largely due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Moldova’s pro-European government has openly condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and expressed discontent with Russian missiles targeting Ukraine landing on its territory.
Moldova had been part of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union or greater Romania for 150 years before gaining independence.
Following independence, the population of Moldova decreased from 4.3 million to about 2.5 million, not including the enclave of Transdniestria run by pro-Russian separatists, due to approximately a million citizens emigrating in search of a better life.
Post-Soviet Moldova has developed strong ties with European Union member Romania to the west based on a shared Romanian language and history.
Moreover, Moldovan nationals with ancestors who lived on the territory of the Greater Romanian state before part of it was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1940 have the right to seek Romanian, and therefore EU, citizenship.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas; Editing by Ronald Popeski and Jonathan Oatis)
