The applicants are a father and his three sons who became Russian nationals between 2002 and 2004. In 2022, the prosecutor´s office for Shatura City in the Moscow Region filed a lawsuit to declare the applicants’ naturalisations void as a consequence of having allegedly provided false documents for their naturalisation applications. The Shatura City Court sided with the prosecutor’s office and declared that the applicants had never acquired Russian nationality.
- Article 22 para 1, Federal Law No. 62-FZ “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”
- Article 6 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
The applicants are a father and three sons who became Russian nationals between 2002 and 2004. According to public information, one of the sons is an environmental political activist who has also made anti-war statements after Russia´s invasion in Ukraine in 2022.
On 10 August 2004, the father filed for his three then underage sons an application to be granted Russian nationality pursuant to Art. 14 para. 6 of the Federal Law No. 62-FZ “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”. According to this provision, a child who is a foreign national or a stateless person shall be granted Russian nationality in a simplified procedure if one of the child´s parents has Russian nationality. For the application for his three sons to obtain Russian nationality, the father presented his passport that was issued in 2002, allegedly proving that he was a Russian national. By a decision of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the Moscow Region dated 12 October 2004, the three sons obtained Russian nationality.
On 25 January 2021, the intermunicipal directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “Lyuberetskoye” decided that the father's Russian passport issued in 2002 had been issued in violation of procedures prescribed by law and therefore seized the passport. According to the data of this intermunicipal directorate, form 1P (which contains the applications for the issuance of a passport) was missing from the files for the father, and thus there was no information that would confirm the acquisition of Russian nationality as required by law.
The father challenged this decision in court. He requested that the decision of 25 January 2021 is declared illegal, including the non-acquisition of Russian nationality and the voidance of the passport. On 7 July 2022, the Shatura City Court of the Moscow region dismissed these claims, the appeal was rejected on 3 October 2022.
As a consequence of this decision, the father had never received a valid passport from the Russian Federation. The prosecutor´s office for Shatura City in the Moscow Region therefore filed a lawsuit against all four applicants to declare that they have never received Russian nationality. This led to the decision by the Shatura City Court that sided with the prosecutor’s office and ruled against the defendants, declaring their naturalisations in Russia void.
The court decision does not contain the legal arguments advanced by the applicants. It is only stated that the applicants' attorney objected against the prosecutor´s office´s claims. The applicants' attorney also argued that the applicants had been living in the Russian Federation for a long time with the issued passports as nationals of the Russian Federation, therefore enjoyed the rights of such nationals and bore the corresponding responsibilities, and therefore should not be considered as persons who had not acquired the nationality of the Russian Federation.
The prosecutor´s office argued that the father deliberately falsely claimed to possess Russian nationality when he presented a Russian passport that was issued in violation of Russian law, in order for his children to obtain Russian nationality.
The court ruled that the three sons had never acquired Russian nationality given that false documents and false information were submitted when applying for the acquisition of Russian nationality.
“Pursuant to Article 22 para. 1 of the Law No. 62-FZ [added in translation: “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”], a decision to acquire or terminate Russian nationality is subject to revocation if it is established that the decision was made on the basis of false documents or knowingly false information submitted by the applicant. The fact of the use of false documents or the reporting of knowingly false information is established in court.” („На основании части 1 статьи 22 Закона № 62-ФЗ решение о приобретении или прекращении гражданства Российской Федерации подлежит отмене, если будет установлено, что данное решение принималось на основании представленных заявителем подложных документов или заведомо ложных сведений. Факт использования подложных документов или сообщения заведомо ложных сведений устанавливается в судебном порядке.”)
“On the basis of the foregoing, the claims for the recognition as illegal of the decisions of the Federal Migration Service of Russia for the Moscow region of 12 October 2004 on the acquisition of Russian Federation nationality [of the sons] […], their revocation and, as a consequence, the recognition of the applicants as not having acquired Russian Federation nationality are upheld.” („На основании изложенного исковые требования о признании незаконными решений УФМС России по Московской области от 12.10.2004 о приобретении гражданства Российской Федерации [of Defendant 1´s sons], […], их отмене и, как следствие, о признании ответчиков не приобретшими гражданство Российской Федерации подлежат удовлетворению.“)
“Assessing the arguments of the [applicants' representative] that her clients have been living for a long time with the issued passports as nationals of the Russian Federation, enjoyed the rights of such nationals and bore the corresponding responsibilities, and therefore cannot be considered as persons who have not acquired nationality of the Russian Federation, the court considers it necessary to point out that the long time that the applicants resided in the territory of the Russian Federation with invalid identity documents as nationals of the State does not question their invalidity, and also notes the unlawful nature of the applicants’ actions.” („Оценивая доводы представителя ответчиков [attorney`s name], о том, что её доверители длительное время проживают по выданным паспортам граждан РФ, пользуются правами гражданина РФ и несут соответствующие обязанности, и поэтому не могут быть признаны лицами, не приобретшими гражданство РФ, суд считает необходимым указать, что длительность проживания ответчиков на территории РФ с недействительными документами, удостоверяющим личность в качестве граждан государства, не устраняет их недействительности, а также отмечает неправомерный характер действий ответчиков в связи с получением указанных документов.“)
The court ruled:
- to declare illegal the decision of the Federal Migration Service of Russia for the Moscow region of 12 October 2004 on the acquisition of nationality of the Russian Federation by the sons of the father and to revoke it;
- to recognise that the applicants have not acquired nationality of the Russian Federation.
Judgements of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 17-GG dated 20 December 1995, No. 10-GG dated 14 November 2005, No. 14-GG dated 26 December 2005, No. 9-GG dated 16 July 2008: the federal legislator, in determining the means of protecting state interests in regulating human and civil rights and freedoms, must use only those means that rule out the possibility of disproportionate restrictions of the rights and freedoms in question, and proceed from the fact that the public interests listed in Article 55 para. 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation justify legal restrictions on rights and freedoms only if such restrictions are adequate to the socially necessary result and, without being excessive, are necessary and strictly conditioned by these public interests.
Judgements of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 12-P dated 16 May 1996: the Constitution of the Russian Federation and international legal acts, in pronouncing the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality or the right to change one's nationality, proceed from the fact that in the area of any legal relations, including those related to nationality, the individual acts not as an object of state activity but as a wholly rightful subject, which obliges the state to ensure, in the exercise of the right to nationality, respect for the dignity of the individual (Article 21 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).
Summary of a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of the Russian Federation on 6 June 2023: https://srdefenders.org/russia-persecution-of-environmental-human-rights-defenders-anti-war-activists-polina-oleynikova-arshak-makichyan-joint-communication/
Full communication: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28122 (attached as PDF)