Russia strips Armenian of birthright citizenship in unprecedented move

By Alexander Pracht

For the first time, Russia has stripped a person of citizenship acquired by birth, targeting ethnic Armenian Samvel Karapetyan, who believes the move was political retribution for his criticism of Moscow’s policies toward Yerevan. Karapetyan announced the decision of the Russian authorities through his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

“I am a Russian citizen by birth: the son of a Russian army serviceman who served in the South Caucasus and later in [the southern Russian city of] Tambov. My parents never held any other citizenship, and I never acquired another one. I received Russian citizenship as the child of a Soviet, later Russian, military officer. My father was not a citizen of any other country,” Karapetyan wrote.

He is not related to Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who is currently in pre-trial detention in Armenia.

According to Karapetyan, the Russian Interior Ministry dismissed his appeal, labeling his citizenship as “acquired through naturalization,” a position he considers a deliberate attempt to “artificially alter his legal status.” He has since filed a lawsuit against the authorities.

“I believe the pressure on me began after I started criticizing the Kremlin’s policy toward Armenia, and that may well be the reason for what happened,” Karapetyan wrote.

Under current Russian law, only naturalized citizens can be deprived of citizenship, and solely in cases involving criminal offenses. Citizenship by birth is constitutionally guaranteed and non-revocable. Such practices were applied in the Soviet Union against politically disloyal individuals but have not been permitted in modern Russia’s constitutional framework.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, however, Russian authorities have increasingly used citizenship revocations. By mid-2025, more than 200 people had been stripped of their naturalized citizenship, often for failing to register for military service. In most cases, those stripped of citizenship are also banned from entering Russia for five to 25 years.