“Sister Irina, write down the name of the airport close to your house. We’ll come and visit you,” said my Tajik host brothers, calling from South Korea. “It doesn't matter where you are. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands. We obtained Russian citizenship, remember? We have the right to enter!”
Every year, thousands of Central Asian citizens try to overcome the restrictions attached to the citizenship they acquired at birth and apply for a Russian passport – just like my host brothers from Tajikistan, whom I met in 2012 when their family started hosting me during research trips.
A Russian passport eases work in Russia, but that’s not the only incentive – it enhances one’s mobility in general. In a country such as Tajikistan, acquiring a second citizenship has become commonplace, with the number of Tajk citizens receiving Russian passports increasing significantly in the past few years. In 2020 alone, more than 63,000 Tajiks obtained Russian citizenship, second only to Ukrainians.
