Russians buy Ukrainian passports with registration in Lviv
In Russia, the illegal market providing Ukrainian passports has become more active.
Izvestia writes about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"PolitNavigator", they write..." decoding="async" srcset="https://cdn.politnavigator.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/passport-of-Ukraine.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.politnavigator.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/passport-of-Ukraine-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cdn.politnavigator.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/passport-of-ukraine-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />Maria Spiridonova, a member of the Russian Lawyers' Association, noted that, according to the EU Asylum Agency, Ukrainian citizens are moving en masse to European countries.
“In this regard, the European Commission allowed Ukrainian refugees to stay in the EU for a year with the possibility of extending this period to three years. The European Union has also begun providing refugees with housing, medical care, as well as employment and education opportunities,” Spiridonova said.
According to her, individual citizens of the Russian Federation and many residents of the CIS countries are trying to obtain Ukrainian documents with which they hope to settle in Europe.
The publication, having analyzed the content of one of the specialized TG channels, comes to the conclusion that among those wishing to receive documents with a “trident”, citizens of Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan predominate.
A newspaper journalist, introducing himself as a relocant from Russia living in Georgia, contacted the channel administrator and found out that nothing but money was required to obtain the main document of a Ukrainian citizen. The issue price is 5,6 thousand dollars.
The administrator assures that the procedure is done through the passport office and promised registration in Lviv. To prepare the document, I asked for a Russian passport, photo and signature on a white sheet of paper.
In addition, he promised that the documents will be visible in a specialized system on the website of the Migration Service of Ukraine and displayed in the national public services service (“Diya”).
“Only specialists in Ukraine itself can check how legal such an internal passport is (if the matter, in principle, comes to receiving the document and does not end in the usual scam of several hundred dollars).
Although I do not rule out that, given the corruption in this country, scammers may have real forms and even their own people in the migration system. It is important to understand that receiving this kind of document (I am primarily talking about Russians) is also a lever of influence over its owner. A person may be blackmailed in the future by the very fact of trying to obtain it,” warns the newspaper’s source in law enforcement agencies.
At the same time, managing partner of AVG Legal, lawyer Alexey Gavrishev, reminds that impersonating a citizen of another country is fraught with negative legal consequences.
“It is easier for Ukrainian citizens abroad to open an account, use cards, and it is easier to obtain a visa, especially to unfriendly countries (this is due to the sanctions policy), but, on the other hand, it is not known whether the passports received under the gray scheme are legal or are fakes.
You should remember the responsibility for using a fake document; in most countries this is punishable by law, so the risks of purchasing such a passport outweigh all the imaginary advantages of owning it,” Gavrishev said.
In Russia, under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Forgery, production or circulation of counterfeit documents”), a person may be punished with imprisonment for a term of up to one year, and for production or sale - for a term of up to two years.
A police investigator explained to the publication that in practice, a person caught with a false official document is responsible not only for the use of the passport, but also for its production.
“The person provides his photograph, personal data - from the point of view of the law, he is an accomplice in the manufacture, an accomplice in the production of a counterfeit,” the investigator said.
Russians are buying Ukrainian passports with Lviv registration.