This is a guest post by legal research analyst Iana Fremer at the Law Library of Congress. She has previously published the following blog posts for the Law Library of Congress: Join Us on 5/18 for a Foreign and Comparative Law Webinar, “E-Governance and E-Voting in the Baltic States: Leaders of E-Transformation.”
Please join us on May 23, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. EDT for another entry in our Foreign and Comparative Law Webinar series: “Weaponization of Passports – Tool of War and Diplomacy: Legality, Methodology, and Impact of Russian “Passportization” Policy Toward Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.”
The presentation will review the history, evolution, and development of the legal framework of Russia‘s passportization policy towards Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, spanning over two decades. The session will explore the similarities and differences in Russia’s methodological approaches and principles governing extraterritorial naturalization in annexed and occupied territories. The webinar will also discuss the strategies and mechanisms employed by the Russian Federation to enhance its foreign policy agenda in the “near abroad,” a term coined by Russia “when discussing its foreign policy toward the newly independent states.”
The webinar will include a comparative analysis of the national legislation and policies on cross-border naturalization/passportization vis-a-vis international law. Additionally, it will showcase a list of examples demonstrating Russia’s use of passportization and naturalization processes as foreign policy tools, and the consequences of these practices.
Iana Fremer, a legal research analyst at the Law Library of Congress, will present the webinar. She provides research and reference services on 30 jurisdictions in Eurasia and Eastern Europe. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and media management from the Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management and a master’s degree in Russian language and literature from Tbilisi State University. She is fluent in Russian, English, and Georgian.
Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.