Putin has signed a law that effectively gives the Kremlin a legal pretext to deploy russian troops abroad under the guise of “protecting russian citizens.”

According to the Russian Federation Council’s Committee on Defense and Security, such situations “provide for the possibility of involving the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” to “protect” russian citizens by decision of the russian president.

The State Duma passed it without a single vote against. Putin signed it today.

This is the exact same playbook the Kremlin has used for years.

First, distribute russian passports in foreign territories.

Then claim those “russian citizens” are under threat.

Then use that manufactured narrative as justification for military intervention, occupation, or annexation.

They did it in:

• Georgia

• Crimea

• Donbas

• and repeatedly threatened the same elsewhere across the former Soviet sphere.

The framing is new – the law also covers russians facing prosecution in foreign or international courts whose jurisdiction Moscow does not recognise, including the ICC that issued an arrest warrant for Putin himself. But the logic is identical: invent a class of “endangered” russians abroad, then reserve the right to send in the army.

This law is not about protecting people. It is about creating a permanent legal mechanism for imperial expansion and military aggression under humanitarian language.

The world should stop pretending these are isolated actions. This is state doctrine.