Since 2023, the Security Police (SP) has called on the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) to revoke the Latvian citizenship of two individuals who supported Russia, reports the LETA agency citing the SP.
In 2023, the Saeima adopted amendments to the Citizenship Law, providing for the possibility of revoking the citizenship of Latvia from individuals who have supported states or persons committing genocide, crimes against peace, humanity, war crimes that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of democratic states, their constitutional order, or who have participated in such actions.
At that time, there was discussion about using this law to revoke the citizenship of Russian billionaire Petr Aven, but this has not yet occurred, and there have been no public explanations for the reasons.
One of the individuals whose Latvian citizenship was revoked at the initiative of the Security Police is Ilyas Bik-Bulatov. In late 2022, the Security Police initiated a criminal case against him on suspicion of illegal participation in the war on the side of the Armed Forces of Russia in Ukraine. Since August 22, 2023, he has been wanted, and in the summer of the same year, the Security Police called on the prosecutor's office to initiate criminal proceedings against him. Several years ago, he served in the National Armed Forces (NAF) and was dismissed from service with a disciplinary sanction.
The second individual whose Latvian citizenship was revoked at the initiative of the Security Police is activist of the Russian 'compatriots' policy and observer of the pseudo-referendum organized in 2022 in the territory of the Donetsk region of Ukraine occupied by Russia, Alina Gerlina, the Security Police reported.
This year, the Security Police initiated the revocation of Latvian citizenship for a total of ten individuals. In all cases, the basis was compliance with the provisions of the Citizenship Law — it concerned the acquisition of Russian citizenship by Latvian citizens as well. According to the data available to the Security Police, five of these individuals have currently been deprived of citizenship.
In addition, this year, the Security Police called on the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) to revoke the non-citizen status of three individuals who obtained Russian citizenship.
In 2024, the Security Police called on the OCMA to revoke the Latvian citizenship of five Latvians and to cancel the non-citizen status of two individuals due to their acquisition of Russian citizenship.
At present, the Security Police is not considering the issue of revoking Latvian citizenship from any Latvian citizen on the grounds of supporting the aggressor.
At the same time, the Security Police emphasized that Latvian citizenship can only be revoked from those individuals who will not become stateless, meaning they have another citizenship besides Latvian.
It was previously reported that another Latvian special unit — the Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution (BPC) — is still assessing whether there are grounds for revoking the citizenship of Russian billionaire Aven. The BPC has been dealing with this issue since 2023, but has not yet provided detailed explanations regarding the duration of the review.
