ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Soviet Union left some 25 million ethnic Russians outside the borders of the former USSR. This Russian ‘diaspora’1 quickly became a convenient ‘vehicle’ by which Russia tried to maintain some degree of influence in the domestic affairs of the successor states of the Soviet Union. Citizenship laws became the focus of much debate and contention as some former Soviet republics adopted extremely liberal citizenship laws for ethnic minorities while other states adopted restrictive citizenship laws that Russia claimed were in violation of human rights norms. What was not debated was the role of citizenship-citizenship was the mechanism through which ethnic Russians could become part of the political community of these states. The denial of citizenship then meant that ethnic Russians were seen as interlopers and were not to be included in post-Soviet state-formation and nation-building.
