In Moldova, the number of dual citizens has risen exponentially in the last decades. Before annexation, 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.
