A Moscow court investigator said Monday she could not explain why exiled opposition activist Ilya Yashin was recently listed in official documents as a “stateless person.”
Yashin, a former Moscow city council member and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, said last week that Russian authorities had effectively stripped him of citizenship after court papers filed by his lawyer described him as stateless and barred from entering Russia.
In court, however, investigator Darya Kurilova confirmed that Yashin remains a Russian citizen, calling the earlier designation a mystery.
“Why, I can’t explain,” she was quoted as saying by the news website Mediazona. “It doesn’t say that citizenship is revoked. It only says [stateless person]. Just two lines.”
Yashin’s lawyer, Mikhail Biryukov, denounced the classification as an “irrecoverable contradiction” and urged the court to summon Interior Ministry officials to explain the confusion. A judge said she would instead seek clarification from the ministry’s information center.
Russia’s Constitution forbids revoking citizenship, but some lawmakers have called for doing so against “traitors” since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Yashin, an ally of the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny, has lived in Germany since being freed in a prisoner exchange between Russia and the West last August.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.
