Russian authorities have revoked the citizenship of investigative journalist Roman Anin, citing his 2025 conviction for spreading so-called “fake” news about the Russian military. The move marks the first known case of a Russian journalist being stripped of their citizenship for reporting on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Journalist Stripped of Citizenship
The Yaroslavl regional branch of the Interior Ministry cited Article 22 of Russia’s Citizenship Law, which allows authorities to strip citizenship if a person provides “knowingly false information” about their intent to follow the Constitution and Russian law.
Anin, the co-founder and publisher of the exiled outlet IStories, was sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in prison in March on charges of publishing “fake” reports about the Russian military “motivated by political hatred.” He acquired Russian citizenship in 2006 after being born in Moldova.
Anin left Russia in 2021 after being declared a “foreign agent” and facing FSB searches related to reporting on the alleged secret yacht of Rosneft chief Igor Sechin’s then-wife. The Justice Ministry added IStories’ Latvian-based legal entity to its list of “undesirable” organizations in March 2022, effectively banning IStories from operating inside Russia.
Russia criminalized “discrediting” and spreading “deliberately false” information about the military shortly after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A law enabling the revocation of acquired Russian citizenship for convictions related to these charges came into force in October 2023.
The first known case under this law involved Krasnodar resident Alexander Somryakov, who was also Moldovan-born and stripped of his citizenship in 2024 after being sentenced to six years in prison for a social media post about the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine. Moscow denies its forces committed atrocities in Bucha, claiming the scenes were staged by Ukraine and its Western allies.
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