Russian passport ranked 94th in the world: “The ranking reflects the level of Russophobia”

“There is an unspoken rule about collective responsibility.”

In the ranking of passports from Nomad Capitalist, Russia is in 94th place out of 199 possible. Ahead of us are many countries of North and South America, the EU and even Ukraine. She’s at number 76. But we are ahead of most of our currently friendly countries, including China (118) and India (149). In general, as the Roman Emperor Octavian liked to repeat, we can consider ourselves “first among equals.” We asked experts what the meaning of this rating is.

Behind us are African and Arab states, Belarus, North Korea, Iran and Syria. Afghanistan closes the list (199). It is best, according to the authors of the rating, to be a citizen of Switzerland in 2024. We can be said to be exactly in the middle.

How do experts determine the rating of a particular passport? According to the number of opportunities for its owner, including visa-free visits to other countries. They also evaluate living conditions in the country of citizenship itself, including the peculiarities of the tax regime, standard of living and freedoms, the perception of compatriots abroad, as well as the possibility of having a second passport.

According to some indicators, it is believed that everything is very good in Russia – we can travel without a visa to 127 countries, these are primarily the countries of the former USSR, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Africa and almost all of South America.

And some territories, including those with limited recognition, can be reached even with just one internal Russian document.

However, in terms of the level of democratic rights and freedoms, from the point of view of the compilers of the index, we clearly fall short. Thus, Russia received a minimal rating for the standard of living and the perception of citizens abroad; the level of freedom of Russians was rated by the authors of the report as 2 out of 5.

Could it be better?

“In my opinion, this rating reflects the level of Russophobia existing in the world today,” human rights activist Maria Arkhipova comments on the situation. — Not the highest position of the Russian passport, I believe, is directly related to the introduction of collective responsibility in relation to individuals for the activities of the state. This position specifically applies to business people and ordinary citizens. There is an unspoken rule: Russian citizens, regardless of their views, must bear collective responsibility. As far as I know, this position has been specifically lobbied by the current US President Joe Biden. In particular, the top US official has repeatedly expressed this point of view on Afghanistan, withdrawing his troops from this country, believing that it is Afghan women who are to blame for the existence of the Taliban, because women allegedly do not fight enough for their rights. This position of collective responsibility is publicly voiced by the most chauvinistic politicians of European countries and unfairly reduces the attractiveness of the Russian passport, which in fact is rated quite highly in many respects.