Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin was not stripped of citizenship, investigator says
Update: An investigator in the Russian authorities’ case against Ilya Yashin said the politician has not been stripped of his citizenship and that the databse entry about a ban on his entry into Russia may have been a mistake, according to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti.
The Russian Interior Ministry has declared opposition politician Ilya Yashin stateless, Yashin reported on Monday, saying he learned of the designation from documents in a criminal case being heard in a Moscow court.
The case documents also state that Yashin is barred from entering Russia under a law allowing restrictions “for the purpose of protecting the country’s defense or security.”
“In other words, this means I’ve been stripped of my Russian citizenship,” Yashin wrote.
Who decided to take away the citizenship I was born with? What procedure was followed? How does this decision align with the constitutional prohibition on revoking Russians’ citizenship? If the information from the Interior Ministry presented in court is confirmed, it would mark a landmark precedent and a new level of arbitrariness by Putin’s regime.
In August 2024, Yashin was released from a Russian prison, where he had been serving a sentence on charges of spreading “disinformation” about the Russian army. He was freed as part of a large-scale prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries that saw 16 people released from Russian prisons.
