Russia is deliberately planting a time bomb in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, reports the Ukrainian TV channel FREEDOM.
This is being done by resettling Russian citizens from the poorest Russian regions to Ukraine. Political scientist Igor Reiterovich says that this is “a time bomb that Russia is now trying to plant under the future of these territories“.
Reiterovich points out that when these Ukrainian territories are reintegrated into Ukraine, Kiev will face a problem - people with Russian passports. In the future, Russia may again play the card of “protecting the Russian-speaking population“ in these territories, as it has done so far.
In the future, perhaps the Russians will have the argument that these are Russian-speaking territories, Russian citizens live there, and accordingly these territories will be considered by the Kremlin as indigenously Russian, the analyst believes.
According to him, the displaced Russians themselves are not worried about potential future problems, they are completely satisfied with everything. Moscow is also pleased with the situation, since in this way it solves its own social problems in the country.
They are moving from very depressed, backward regions that are blessed with huge amounts of natural resources. However, the Russian authorities do not invest the income from these resources in the population and development of the regions. And suddenly Russian citizens find themselves in an unusual situation – are sent to Ukraine, where the infrastructure is better developed, despite the fact that much of it was destroyed by the Russian army.
Reiterovich noted that Russia implemented a similar policy immediately after the collapse of the USSR, creating a kind of “enclave“ in the territories of the former Soviet Union with the help of displaced persons. As a result, for example, Estonia acquired a group of the population that actively supports Russia.
However, the political scientist does not believe that such tactics will have a serious effect in relation to Ukraine. Now, when all this is happening against the background of Russia's aggressive war, such actions will have completely different consequences. The most important factor is that they will be perceived completely differently by the international community.