A new Atlantic essay maps the bureaucratized regime Russia has built inside occupied Ukraine. The occupation has hardened into a system of total control, designed to normalize itself and manufacture sovereignty. Sergey Kirienko, head of Russia’s presidential administration, has emerged as the system’s principal overseer.

His remit spans puppet “elections,” reconstruction plans, education, and media control. The defining feature of the occupation is the pursuit of total control without regard for law. “Legality” is a facade: Russian codes are invoked when convenient and ignored when not.

People are detained, disappeared, or punished extrajudicially. “Passportization” functions as a coercive instrument. By September 10, 2025, residents of occupied Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk had to take a Russian passport, leave, or be classed as “foreigners” in their own homes.

Access to healthcare, property, and employment is bound to submission. The occupation is reinforced by demographic reengineering: the abduction of children, the import of settlers, and the erasure of Ukrainian language and culture. From September 1, 2025, Ukrainian-language instruction was banned in all occupied schools.

The analysis calls the system intimidation, not governance.