Comment Climate activist Arshak Makichyan built a reputation as Russia’s answer to Greta Thunberg, staging solitary weekly protests in central Moscow and often getting arrested. Makichyan, 28, who fled Russia to Berlin in March after the invasion of Ukraine, continues to push for climate action, but as of last week, the government says he is no longer Russian. In an unusual case, a Moscow court decided to strip Makichyan of his citizenship along with his father and brother, who both remain in Russia, in what appears to be retaliation for his public anti-war statements. Makichyan, who is Armenian by birth, immigrated to Russia as a baby in 1995 and only holds a Russian passport, meaning the ruling has effectively rendered him stateless. “I’m at a loss as to what to do in the future,” Makichyan told the Washington Post in a telephone interview, saying a refugee passport in Germany could limit his climate activism. After the February invasion of Ukraine, Makichyan, like many Russian activists, made the difficult decision to leave their country. He and his young wife, a fellow activist, had married the same day Russian troops poured into Ukraine. Both continued to speak out against the war from Germany. A trial to review his citizenship began in his absence over the summer, and a Moscow court decided to drop it last month, accusing Makichyan of providing false information to immigration authorities, despite the fact that he was just 10 years old when his father filed the citizenship application. The court informed his lawyer of their decision just a week later. “This is my identity. I have been an activist in Russia for four years. “I have lived all my life in Russia, and yet, I see myself in its future, when Russia becomes free,” Makichyan said. The court also revoked the citizenship of his father and brother. Like Makichyan, neither his father nor his brother have another passport, and it is unclear what fate awaits them in Moscow. “The court applied the law very liberally in this case,” Olga Pontoplova, Makichyan’s lawyer, told The Post, saying they plan to appeal the decision. “Under normal circumstances, we could easily defend the citizenship of Arshak, his father and brother.” But these are not normal conditions. Since the invasion, Russian authorities have blatantly and repeatedly disregarded the law, arresting people simply for standing near an anti-government demonstration and forcing people who do not qualify for military service to join the army. Ethnic minorities have also come under fire. “Since I was a child, I felt, well, not quite Russian,” Makichyan said. “I felt that I had no right to participate in political life, because if I said something, people would immediately say that I am Armenian and that I should go back to my country.” “But I continued because somehow I felt responsible. I understood that if there are no changes in Russia, then we will not be able to deal with the climate crisis,” he said. “Russia is part of the global world and needs a voice.” To an extent he succeeded. He drew media attention to his weekly protests and was invited to speak at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2019. He also helped inspire other climate protests in cities across Russia. Makichyan said Russian authorities are concerned about any form of youth protest, no matter how small. “It seems to me that the main threat was that I stood there and just existed. Now they want to officially say that I don’t exist at all, at least not on paper,” he said. The Russian parliament passed a new bill amending citizenship rules this spring. The new law created what political analyst Ekaterina Schulman calls an “inequality” between two types of citizenship, allowing authorities to easily move against citizens who previously held a foreign passport. “When Makichyan became a nuisance, the authorities apparently checked his documents. They asked, what can be done with him? The answer: His citizenship can be revoked. It’s a lot simpler than opening a criminal case,” Schulman said. Lawyers say there is a practice that predates the 2022 amendment of “arresting” citizens of mostly former Soviet states with minor administrative errors. There have been alleged cases of officials claiming to have lost such passports and forcing individuals to reapply for citizenship. “This is a form of ethnic discrimination,” Podoplelova said. “Many immigrants believe that Russian citizenship gives them more rights or protects them. But this is an illusion,” noted Valentina Chupik, director of Tong Jahoni, a non-profit organization that helps migrants from Central Asia in Russia. Makitsian warned that his case could signal the emergence of a new tool of political repression against critics of the Kremlin. “The Arshak case is a very dangerous precedent, given the Soviet experience of depriving dissidents of their citizenship,” Podoplelova said. This spring, Russian lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin called critics of the invasion “traitors” and proposed stripping them of their citizenship. He regrets that “there is no procedure to revoke citizenship and prevent them from entering our country.” Shulman said it was unlikely Makychian’s case would signal a new wave of crackdowns, underscoring the rigidity of Russia’s legal framework. “If you are born a Russian citizen, if you have citizenship from birth, then there is no way, at least for now, that the state can legally divest you of that status,” Shulman said.
