Comparing Identity and Citizenship in Crimea and Moldova from the Bottom-Up

In Moldova, the number of dual citizens has risen exponentially in the last decades. Before Russia's annexation of Crimea, many saw Russia as granting citizenship to – or passportizing – large numbers in Crimea.  In this talk, I interrogate why these communities engage with dual citizenship and how this intersects, or not, with identity. I explore how and why Russian citizenship was largely and surprisingly absent in Crimea before annexation, compare it with the strong presence of Romanian citizenship in Moldova, and explore how far identity helps explain this difference. Finally, I will reflect on what comparing identity and citizenship in these two cases from the bottom-up can illuminate about contemporary political dynamics in the shadow of Russia's brutal war against Ukraine and its ongoing occupation of Crimea, among other Ukrainian regions.