Nearly 80 Percent of Russians Want Nationality Line Restored in Internal Passports, News Agency Poll Suggests

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 30 – Earlier this year, the Rex News Agency, which generally follows the Kremlin and takes a Russian nationalist line, asked its readers whether they favored restoring the nationality line in internal passports, something that was dropped in the early 1990s. 718 took part, and 79.1 percent said they would like to see the line restored (iarex.ru/votings/234.html).

            In Soviet times, the nationality line was notorious for the ways in which officials used it to discriminate against ethnic groups, including most prominently against Jews. And after the USSR fell apart, there was widespread support for the idea of doing away with such lines to promote a common identity.

            But more recently, both non-Russians and ethnic Russians have called for it to be returned, the first because ethnic identity can secure benefits (as in the case of the numerically small nationalities of the north) or help them maintain their groups’ size and ethnic Russians because many don’t declare a separate nationality at all, threatening the size of that nation.

            While many have argued that the Putin regime has de facto restored the line because of the way it treats non-Russians, in fact the Kremlin has been consistent in opposing the restoration of the nationality line, something that it appears as with the Rex poll is largely coming from ethnic Russians and thus likely overstates the share of the Russian Federation population favoring this step. 

            For a more detailed discussion of the nationality line in recent years, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/10/ever-more-rf-residents-going-to-court.html and for the Russian government’s reaction, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/06/russian-government-opposes-latest-duma.html.