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Ilya Yashin, a Russian opposition politician in exile who was included in a landmark prisoner exchange last year, wrote on X that he appears to have been stripped of his Russian citizenship:
“Today a Moscow court begins hearing a new criminal case against me. This time, I am accused of refusing to recognize myself as a foreign agent. My lawyer reviewed the case materials and found a report prepared for the court by employees of the Russian Interior Ministry.
The document states that I have been assigned the status of SP — a stateless person who is banned from entering the territory of the Russian Federation. In other words, it says that I have been stripped of my Russian citizenship.”
Yashin reminded readers that Article 6 of the Russian Constitution prohibits depriving a citizen of the Russian Federation of their citizenship.
“If the information from the Russian Interior Ministry presented in court is confirmed, we are dealing with a most significant precedent and a new escalation of lawlessness on the part of Putin’s regime,” Yashin concluded.
Meanwhile, as the investigative outlet Agentstvo found out, the opposition politician’s passport is still listed as valid on Russia's online public services portal.
Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer from the human rights project Pervy Otdel (Dept.One), pointed out to The Insider that the report published by Yashin may contain an error:
“To be honest, there’s little trust in this document. Most likely, the Interior Ministry has once again made a mix-up. The document states [in the ‘Criminal Record Information’ section] that ‘the nature of the crime is a false report of a terrorist act’ [whereas Yashin was actually convicted for spreading ‘fakes’ about the Russian Armed Forces]. A similar situation could be the case with his stateless person status.
From what I know about Ilya’s biography, he cannot be deprived of his citizenship under current laws, since he acquired it at birth.”