international
Is it legal under international law to distribute passports among citizens of another country?
<p>In the last few days Russian president Vladimir Putin has been publicly considering offering <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-putin/putin-says-russia-may-offer-fast-tracked-passports-to-all-ukrainians-idUSKCN1S307U" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fast-track passports to Ukrainian citizens</a>. Some sources quote concerns that the Russian government could eventually use these newly acquired citizens as a reason for military intervention. Since this problem may have occured before in history, my question is as follows:</p>

<p>Is it legal unter international law to distribute passports among citizens of another country?</p>

<p>If it is not, are there restrictions as to who is eligible for passports?</p>

<p>Any country can certainly decide who it should grant citizenship status to. There is no international rule that I know of requiring that the recipient be currently a resident of the country granting citizenship. Any country may issue passports to its citizens.</p>
