Interior Ministry authorities are revoking the Russian citizenship of an increasing number of Jehovah's Witnesses as a direct result of these individuals' convictions for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief. At least 12 people who gained citizenship by naturalisation have lost it after being found guilty of "continuing the activities" of Jehovah's Witnesses' organisations after the nationwide ban on their activities. At least five are known to have been expelled from Russia as a consequence.

The practice "has been gaining momentum over the past year", the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses observes, though it is unknown why this should be the case (see below).

Forum 18 is aware of two Jehovah's Witnesses whose citizenship was revoked in 2021, one in 2023, and two in 2024. As many as 7 appear to have lost their citizenship in 2025. One Muslim is known to have had his citizenship revoked in 2019, with the same apparently occurring to another some three years later (see below).

Four of the Jehovah's Witnesses are known to have been made stateless at the moment their Russian citizenship was rescinded (see below).

"What does this mean for believers and their families in practice? Some risk further discrimination based on their religion in their country of birth, others will be separated from their families for an indefinite period, and still others may become stateless due to paperwork red tape," the European Association noted.

On 7 February 2025, Orenburg Region's branch of the Interior Ministry issued a decision rescinding the Russian citizenship of Uzbek-born Jehovah's Witness Rustam Diarov and invalidating his Russian passport (which was confiscated). He was then serving an 8-year jail term for continuing to meet for worship with fellow Jehovah's Witnesses (see below).

Diarov argued in his unsuccessful appeal that the decision "significantly violates his rights, in particular, with respect to his private and family life". He pointed out that his mother and wife are both Russian citizens and resident in Russia, and his mother "requires constant care due to her age and state of health" (see below).

On 17 February 2026, prison authorities released Diarov early on health grounds. He left the country by plane shortly after his release, and by the evening of 18 February, had arrived in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent. He was accompanied by his wife Yelena Diarova, who is a Russian citizen (see below).

Forum 18 asked the Orenburg Region branch of the Interior Ministry why they had rescinded Diarov's citizenship when this would make him stateless and whether (and for how long) he is now barred from re-entering Russia. Forum 18 has received no response (see below).

Five of the 12 Jehovah's Witnesses whose citizenship is known to have been revoked have already been expelled from or have left Russia. Two are still imprisoned. Three are serving the probationary periods of their suspended sentences. The situation of the other two is unknown (see below).

in 2025, Interior Ministry officials in Irkutsk rescinded the Russian citizenship of Ukrainian-born Mikhail Moysh. He is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence in the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia. After his release, it is likely that he will be obliged to leave Russia. He and his wife Yelena have two children, one of whom was born in Russia (see below).

Ukrainian-born Irina Khvostova from Magadan, who received a suspended sentence and is on probation until October 2026, is now a stateless person with no passport (see below).

Forum 18 asked both the Federal Interior Ministry and the office of Federal Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova why the citizenship of these Jehovah's Witnesses could be rescinded if this would leave them stateless, and why they were being expelled from Russia when they posed no public danger. Forum 18 has received no response from either (see below).

Jehovah's Witnesses prosecuted on extremism charges

Russia's Supreme Court declared the Jehovah's Witness Administrative Centre "extremist" and banned its activities in 2017. In the years since then, 887 people have faced criminal prosecution for continuing to meet for prayer and Bible study.

Jehovah's Witnesses argue that the Supreme Court ruling did not outlaw their beliefs. They point to a February 2021 statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Rights, that the ruling "emphasised that when considering the case, it [Supreme Court] evaluated neither the legality of Jehovah's Witness religious beliefs, nor the means of expressing them, but only the specific illegal actions of this organisation [the Jehovah's Witness Administrative Centre and its subsidiaries]".

So far, over 660 Jehovah's Witnesses have been convicted, mainly under Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1 and Part 2 for organising or leading "the activities of a banned extremist organisation" (three of them posthumously). First-instance courts are known to have handed 206 people prison terms, 333 suspended sentences, 111 fines, and 11 terms of assigned labour. Only one person has so far been acquitted and had this verdict enter and remain in force, while 25 have had the charges against them dropped.

Even before any trial, investigators usually have individuals added to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) "List of Terrorists and Extremists". This brings many financial consequences including the freezing of bank accounts except in the case of small transactions.

Individuals with suspended sentences and those released from prison often must spend years under various restrictions and obligations.

Most Jehovah's Witnesses appeal against their convictions, but almost all are unsuccessful. When prosecutors challenge sentences they see as too lenient, a few defendants even receive harsher punishments on appeal than they did in first-instance courts.

Raids on Jehovah's Witness homes have continued into 2026. These are usually led by the Investigative Committee or the Federal Security Service (FSB) – the agencies usually responsible for investigations of Jehovah's Witnesses for "continuing the activities of a banned extremist organisation". Such raids often involve armed troops of the National Guard (Rosgvardiya).

The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, expressed concern about the prosecution on "extremism" charges of Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims who read Said Nursi's works. She called on the regime to: "Immediately cease the abuse of national security, public safety and particularly anti-extremism and counter-terrorism laws against civil society groups", including religious communities, in her September 2025 report to the UN General Assembly.

Muslims also prosecuted on extremism charges

Muslims who meet to study the writings of the late Turkish theologian Said Nursi are also prosecuted under the Extremism Law. They are accused of organising or participating in the activities of "Nurdzhular", which the Supreme Court banned as an "extremist" organisation in 2008. Muslims in Russia deny any such formal organisation ever existed.

Such Muslims typically meet in homes to study Islam, with one or more expounding on Nursi's works. They also pray, eat, and drink tea together, and do not seek state permission to meet.

While the majority of Muslims convicted under Criminal Code Article 282.2 for alleged involvement in "Nurdzhular" have been Russian citizens by birth, several – who were born in states of Central Asia or the Caucasus when these were part of the Soviet Union – acquired citizenship by naturalisation. They may therefore encounter the same issue of citizenship revocation as Jehovah's Witnesses.

Yevgeny Kim, for example, lost his Russian citizenship in January 2019, while serving his prison sentence. Upon his release in April 2019, he was immediately placed in a detention centre for foreign and stateless persons. He remained there in limbo for more than two years, after Uzbekistan – where he had been born in 1974 – refused to accept him on the grounds that he had never held Uzbek citizenship.

Kim was eventually released in May 2021 and allowed to leave Russia for a third country.

Ilgar Aliyev (born in Soviet Azerbaijan in 1977) was released in November 2022 after completing just over half of his 8-year prison sentence, when a panel of judges reclassified his offence on the grounds of recent Supreme Court guidance, and recalculated the length of his term based on new rules.

Aliyev then spent just over two months in a temporary detention centre for foreign nationals and stateless persons while "the issue of his citizenship was resolved", before leaving for Azerbaijan in February 2023, "of his own free will" and with the permission of the Russian authorities, a fellow Muslim who had been following his case told Forum 18 in 2023.

Human rights monitor OVD-Info notes that officials had rescinded Aliyev's Russian citizenship.

Citizenship annulments increase

Although the number of known cases is still small – 12 individuals – the revocation of Jehovah's Witnesses' Russian citizenship has increased in frequency over the last year, the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses noted in its 2025 report.

Forum 18 is aware of two Jehovah's Witnesses whose citizenship was revoked in 2021, one in 2023, and two in 2024. As many as 7 appear to have lost their citizenship in 2025.

The countries in which they were born or previously held citizenship include: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Some became Russian nationals through a simplified process for former Soviet citizens in the 1990s or early 2000s, others after growing up as nationals of independent post-Soviet states.

All 12 Jehovah's Witnesses were convicted on criminal charges of "continuing the activities of a banned extremist organisation". Six of them received prison terms, while the other six received suspended sentences.

Four are known to have been made stateless at the moment their Russian citizenship was rescinded, while three had retained citizenship of another country. The status of the other five is unknown.

Without valid documents, it is impossible to leave Russia (and unlikely another country will allow entry). People in this situation are therefore kept in detention centres for foreign nationals and stateless persons until they can obtain some form of documentation which will allow them to cross the border.

Five of the 12 Jehovah's Witnesses have already been expelled from or have left Russia. Two are still imprisoned. Three are serving the probationary periods of their suspended sentences. The situation of the other two is unknown.

Forum 18 wrote to both the Federal Interior Ministry and the office of Federal Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova on 22 February 2026, asking why the citizenship of these Jehovah's Witnesses could be rescinded if this would leave them stateless, and why they were being expelled from Russia when they posed no public danger. Forum 18 had received no response from either by the afternoon of the working day in Moscow of 27 February.

Jehovah's Witnesses whose citizenship has been annulled include:
- Feliks Makhammadiyev,
- Konstantin Bazhenov,
- Rustam Seidkuliyev, and
- Irina Khvostova.

Khvostova, who received a suspended sentence and is on probation until October 2026, is still living in Russia after successfully challenging a ban on entering the country. Both Magadan City Court and Magadan Regional Court upheld the revocation of her citizenship, however, on 26 August and 25 November 2025.

Khvostova is now a stateless person with no passport, Jehovah's Witness lawyers noted to Forum 18 on 12 February. This creates difficulties in situations in which at least an internal passport is required. In Russia, these can include applying for a job, getting a driving licence, buying a phone sim card, checking into hotels, and using public services.

Revocation of citizenship, early release, expulsion from Russia

On 7 February 2025, Orenburg Region's branch of the Interior Ministry issued a decision rescinding the Russian citizenship of Rustam Gennadyevich Diarov (born 13 August 1973 in Uzbekistan, then a constituent republic of the Soviet Union) and invalidating his Russian passport, according to court rulings seen by Forum 18.

At the time, Diarov was serving an 8-year prison sentence after being convicted of "organising the activities of a banned extremist organisation" (Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1) for continuing to meet for worship with fellow Jehovah's Witnesses. This is one of the longest prison terms ever handed down to a Jehovah's Witness. His conviction served as grounds for revocation of his citizenship. On 17 February 2026, however, he was released early on health grounds.

As in the cases of Feliks Makhammadiyev, Konstantin Bazhenov, and Rustam Seidkuliyev, Interior Ministry officials had ordered Diarov expelled from Russia. Prison officials had already confiscated his now-invalid Russian passport. Diarov left the country by plane shortly after his release, and by the evening of 18 February 2026, had arrived in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent. He was accompanied by his wife Yelena Diarova, who is a Russian citizen.

Diarov "openly stated on the application [for Russian citizenship] that he was a Jehovah's Witness. At the time, this religion was officially registered in the Russian Federation. Eighteen years later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs claimed that Rustam had provided 'knowingly false information' while assuring the state of his commitment to upholding the Constitution and laws", the European Association of Jehovah's Witness noted in its report on Diarov's early release on 18 February.

"It appears that Diarov was expected to foresee that years later, the Witnesses' legal entities in Russia would be liquidated and that he himself would be convicted for simple religious activity," his lawyer commented in the same report.

Diarov – who had no citizenship other than Russian – challenged the Interior Ministry's decision unsuccessfully at Lenin District Court, Orenburg, on 25 July 2025. Orenburg Regional Court upheld the ruling on 6 November 2025.

According to the district court ruling, seen by Forum 18, Diarov argued that the decision "significantly violates his rights, in particular, with respect to his private and family life". He pointed out that his mother and wife are both Russian citizens and resident in Russia, and his mother "requires constant care due to her age and state of health".

Diarov cited his ownership of property, a stable source of income, the absence of tax arrears or any other debts, positive character references, and his lack of any administrative offences as evidence of his "stable social tie with the Russian Federation".

Judge Vitaly Katerinin of Lenin District Court concluded, however, that the decision to revoke Diarov's citizenship does not constitute "excessive and unjustified interference" in his personal and family life, and that it "meets the principles of fairness and proportionality to the violations committed".

Diarov's criminal conviction "is an unconditional basis for the termination of his citizenship of the Russian Federation, which, contrary to [Diarov's] arguments, cannot be made dependent on his financial or family status", the judge noted, given that the offence of which he was found guilty "infringes on the specially protected institutions of society and the state".

"The commission of socially dangerous attacks on specially protected public relations, by a person who previously acquired Russian citizenship, in the presence of a final court verdict, presumably implies the absence of any real social and legal connection with the Russian Federation", Judge Katerinin concluded.

At the time, presumably given Diarov's continued incarceration (with a projected release date of 29 July 2027), Interior Ministry authorities had not yet issued any order expelling him from Russia or barring him from re-entering the country. Judge Katerinin therefore decided that rescinding his citizenship did not stop him living in Russia "and, accordingly, does not violate his right to respect for his private and family life, or to communicate and live with close relatives after his release from the correctional facility".

Forum 18 wrote to the Orenburg Region branch of the Interior Ministry on 22 February 2026 to ask why they had rescinded Diarov's citizenship when this would make him stateless and whether (and for how long) he is now barred from re-entering Russia. Forum 18 had received no response by the afternoon of the working day in Orenburg of 27 February.

Rustam Diarov was born in 1973 in Samarkand in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. In August 2007, he gained Russian citizenship in Orenburg Region in western Siberia by means of a simplified procedure for former Soviet citizens, according to Orenburg Regional Court's November 2025 decision on his lawsuit, seen by Forum 18. By the time of his arrest, he was living in the southern city of Astrakhan, working as an actor at a puppet theatre.

The Investigative Committee opened a case against him under Criminal Code Article 282.2, Part 1 in June 2020. As part of the same case, they indicted Diarov's fellow Jehovah's Witnesses Sergey Klikunov and Yevgeny Ivanov (also under Part 1) and Olga Ivanova (under Part 2, "Participation in the activities of a banned extremist organisation"). Investigators arrested all four during raids on 27 Jehovah's Witness homes on 9 June 2020.

Astrakhan's Trusovsky District Court found Diarov, Klikunov, Ivanov, and Ivanova guilty on 25 October 2021 after a four-month trial. Diarov and the other two men were sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment in a general-regime prison colony, plus 1 year's restrictions on freedom and a 5-year ban on leading and participating in the work of public organisations.

The Court handed Ivanova a sentence of 3 years and 6 months' imprisonment, plus 1 year's restrictions on freedom and a 3-year ban on leading and participating in the work of public organisations. She was released on 11 June 2024.

Diarov and his fellow defendants appealed unsuccessfully at Astrakhan Regional Court on 3 March 2022. He served his sentence first in Tatarstan's Correctional Colony No. 4 in Nizhnekamsk, then from April 2023 in Correctional Colony No. 8 in Almetyevsk, also in Tatarstan.

Diarov has a number of chronic illnesses which worsened in prison conditions, according to the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, and was hospitalised in September 2025. In December 2025, doctors diagnosed him with a malignant tumour, and a Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) medical commission ruled that treatment would be impossible in prison hospital facilities.

Diarov had been due to complete his sentence on 29 July 2027, taking into account the 630 days he had spent in detention during the investigation and trial and between conviction and appeal. Instead, he left the prison colony on 17 February 2026 after Privolzhsky District Court in Kazan authorised his early release. He arrived in Uzbekistan with his wife on 18 February.

Revocation of citizenship, still serving prison sentence

Also in 2025, Interior Ministry officials in Irkutsk rescinded the Russian citizenship of Mikhail Florovich Moysh (born 26 August 1987 in Ukraine, then a constituent republic of the Soviet Union). It is unknown whether they have yet issued any order expelling him from Russia or barring him from re-entering the country.

Moysh was convicted under Criminal Code Articles 282.2, Part 1 and 282.3, Part 1 ("Financing extremist activity") in March 2024. He is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence in the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia. After his release, it is likely that he will be obliged to leave Russia. He and his wife Yelena have two children, one of whom was born in Russia.

"Now, it turns out, they're deporting Moysh, and what about his family?", Moysh's lawyer commented to the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses on 8 January 2026. "Should they leave too? And where would they go, if one child has almost finished school here, and the other is still young and a Russian citizen by birth?"

Moysh has not yet challenged the revocation of his citizenship in court, Jehovah's Witness lawyers told Forum 18 on 12 February 2026. It is not yet known whether he still has Ukrainian citizenship, they added. While renunciation of any other citizenship is necessary to obtain Russian citizenship, this sometimes goes unacknowledged by the authorities of other countries.

Moysh, who was born in the village of Glubokiy Potik in the western Ukrainian Zakarpattya Region, moved from Zakarpattya to Irkutsk with his wife in the 2010s in order to help her parents, who were living there at the time. It is unknown when he became a Russian citizen.

Investigators arrested him and several other Jehovah's Witnesses in a series of armed raids on thirteen homes in Irkutsk and nearby villages in October 2021. During these raids, National Guard troops assaulted and tortured some Jehovah's Witnesses and threatened one man with rape.

Irkutsk's October District Court convicted Moysh and eight other men on 5 March 2024 after a trial lasting over a year. Moysh and five others, all found guilty under Criminal Code Articles 282.2, Part 1 and 282.3, Part 1, received sentences of 7 years' imprisonment in a general-regime prison colony, plus 1 year and 2 months' restrictions on freedom and a 5-year ban on "organisational activities in public and religious organisations" (two men charged under Article 282.2, Part 1 alone and another charged under Article 282.2, Part 2 received shorter jail terms).

Irkutsk Regional Court upheld their convictions on appeal on 12 December 2024.

Moysh is serving his sentence in Correctional Colony No. 4 in Shagonar (Republic of Tuva). He is due to be released on 22 February 2027, taking into account the 1165 days he spent in detention before and during his trial and between conviction and appeal.

Legal grounds for revocation of citizenship

Article 6 of Russia's Constitution states that a person cannot be stripped of his or her citizenship. Diarov, Moysh, and other Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims who have lost their Russian citizenship did so on the basis of an amendment to Article 22 of the Citizenship Law which entered legal force on 1 September 2017.

Citizenship Law Article 22 states that the decision to admit a person to Russian citizenship can be annulled – i.e. citizenship is revoked, as if it had never been granted – if it was awarded on the basis of forged documents or "false information".

Under the 2017 amendment, subsequent conviction under some articles of the Criminal Code is taken as equivalent to knowingly presenting false information in a citizenship application. Among the specified Criminal Code Articles are 282.2 ("Organising" or "Participating in the activity of a social or religious association or other organisation in relation to which a court has adopted a decision legally in force on liquidation or ban on the activity in connection with the carrying out of extremist activity") and 282.3 ("Financing extremist activity").

These Criminal Code Articles are used to prosecute Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslim readers of Nursi's works. As a result, therefore, authorities may annul the citizenship of a person who has been found guilty of one of these offences, and who acquired Russian citizenship by naturalisation (rather than by birth).

Olga Abramenko of the Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial argues that the amended Article 22 contravenes Article 20 of the Citizenship Law (under which "withdrawal" from Russian citizenship is not allowed if an individual "does not hold another citizenship and has no guarantee of acquiring one"), as well as Article 6 of the Constitution. Article 6, as well as stating that a person cannot be deprived of their citizenship, also states that Russian citizenship is "one and equal, irrespective of the grounds of acquisition".

Constitutionally, therefore, Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims who gained citizenship by naturalisation should not be treated differently from those who have been Russian nationals from birth. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia

For background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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