Putin simplifies Russian citizenship for Transnistria residents; Moldova blasts move

Russian President Vladimir Putin simplified the process for citizenship for residents of Moldova’s Transnistria region, which Moldovan President Maia Sandu blasted as a mobilization tool for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Putin signed a decree on Friday allowing for residents of Moldova’s breakaway region to obtain Russian citizenship without having to reside in Russia or speak Russian.

Sandu hit back on Saturday, saying that “probably they need more people to send to the war in Ukraine.”

She suggested it was one of Russia’s tactics to threaten Moldova over its efforts to reintegrate Transnistria, a Moscow-backed region in eastern Moldova where Russian troops have been stationed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Since the war in Ukraine began, most of the people from the region took their Moldovan citizenship because they felt safer to have the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova and not the citizenship of Russia,” said Sandu, who was speaking at a security conference in Tallinn.

Moldova was granted EU candidate status in 2022 and formally started negotiations to join the bloc in 2024. Sandu’s pro-European party, Action and Solidarity, holds a strong majority in the country after winning the 2025 parliamentary elections despite a hybrid interference campaign from Russia.

When asked whether Putin could block Moldova’s membership into the EU due to the Transnistria case, Sandu responded that “only the EU can decide whether Moldova can become part of the EU or not. Russia has nothing to do with it.”