In Abkhazia local activists from the non-governmental sector may be deprived of Russian citizenship. The opposition, citing sources from the entourage of President Aslan Bzhania, claim that lists of Abkhazians with Russian citizenship have already been sent to Moscow for this purpose. The authorities denied this, but not too convincingly.
Abkhazian passport is not recognized globally and, accordingly, it is impossible to go anywhere but the Russian Federation with it, thus Russian citizenship for Abkhazians is the only way out into the world. About 60% of the population of Abkhazia has a Russian passport. To lose it means to become practically unable to travel.
The leading opposition Telegram channel Respublika claims that the issue of deprivation of citizenship is being handled by the Foreign Ministry and the State Security Service of Abkhazia, and the president personally controls this process.
Rumors about this have been circulating since last month — when the Abkhazian parliament ratified transfer of the Pitsunda estate to Russia.
The united opposition and a significant part of the civil sector objected to the ratification of the agreement in its existing form.
The presidential administration responded to the news about the possible revocation of the activists’ citizenship with a special statement, calling on citizens to be vigilant and verify information before drawing conclusions and disseminating inaccurate information in public space.
However, the administration’s response sounded very ambiguous:
“The leadership and state administration bodies of the Republic of Abkhazia do not have the authority to resolve issues of deprivation of citizenship of other states. Thus, it is obvious that the mentioned reports in no way correspond to reality and pursue exclusively negative, destabilization-oriented goals,” a statement reads.
Telegram channel Respublika called the statement “strange” and raised even more questions. According to the channel, the presidential administration did not deny the existence of lists for deprivation of Russian citizenship. The only argument it cited was a lack of authority.
“The fact that Aslan Bzhania cannot deprive someone of Russian citizenship on his own is clear enough,” Respublika writes. “But we are talking about passing the information to the right place, and the system will figure it out on its own.”
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