‘Who could be deprived of Russian citizenship?’: Ruben Kirakosyan 

Chair of the ArmRost Lawyers Association Ruben Kirakosyan commented to Alpha News on whether criticism of Russia’s policies or the Russian army could become grounds for deprivation of Russian citizenship.

“There is no such thing in practice. What you are talking about becomes a basis only if it arises from sentences. You need to look at the proceedings on personal matters to see what accents there are. Actually, it is considered not only a criminal offense but also an administrative offense, depending on how serious it is. There are many nuances,” the lawyer said.

According to our interlocutor, this applies more to those people who have a certain influence on public opinion.

“Now they want to raise this issue, but this will mainly concern citizens of a foreign country who are active in the media sphere, or even citizens of Russia who are activists and have influence on public opinion,” Kirakosyan said.

The lawyer also talked about what could happen when a person who had previously renounced the citizenship of his country was deprived of Russian citizenship.

“If previously a person was a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, then he accepted Russian citizenship, and now he is found guilty of a crime and is deprived of Russian citizenship, then a problem arises, for example, how to restore citizenship of the Republic of Armenia.

How will Armenia look at all this? When a person renounces citizenship, they write down the reasons why they do it. They will have to provide some justification for why they want to restore citizenship,” Kirakosyan said․