Passportisation - the new geopolitical strategy? A comparative analysis of Russia’s passportisation policy and its effects on brain drain in the Eastern Neighbourhood

Sammanfattning: Russia has been issuing passports to Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus since the Soviet dissolution. Most targeted are secessionist regions of former Soviet states, whose populations are now becoming Russian due to passportisation. This has had several effects on the Eastern Neighbourhood, including brain drain, meaning that the highly educated and skilled citizens are emigrating. The brain drain in breakaway regions increases if the relationship between Russia and the secessionist regions is good. This thesis examines Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria who are de facto independent from Georgia and Moldova, respectively. This thesis finds that passportisation was the highest in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and lower in Transnistria, and that the relationship was the best in South Ossetia and Transnistria while being poorer in Abkhazia. This caused South Ossetia to have the highest brain drain, while Abkhazia and Transnistria only had a moderately high brain drain. Russia claims passportisation is conducted on a humanitarian basis, which this thesis aims to disprove. This thesis instead argues that passportisation has geopolitical motivations and is pursued as a Russian strategy to maintain hegemonic power and its sphere of influence in the Eastern Neighbourhood.