New Law in Russia: Teenagers to Lose Citizenship for Refusing Military Registration

In Russia, teenagers who have acquired citizenship can be stripped of it for evading military registration. Human rights advocates warn that the new bill lowers the age for taking the oath to 14 and creates possibilities for revoking the citizenship of minors, reports NewsBox.

The Russian authorities approved a bill which reduces the minimum age for taking the citizenship oath from 18 to 14. According to lawyers and human rights activists, this opens new grounds for revoking acquired citizenship, including the refusal of teenagers to register for military service.

As lawyer Artyom Klyga from the "Conscientious Objectors Movement" stated, minors can now lose their citizenship if they fail to undergo mandatory military registration at age 17. Previously, this procedure did not apply to those under 18, as they were not required to take the oath.

TASS reported that the government-approved bill also allows for the annulment of the citizenship grants for foreigners who refuse to take the oath. According to Evgeny Smirnov, a lawyer from the "First Department," the amendments provide a tool for depriving citizenship from those who have acquired it but do not comply with established regulations. He noted that there are already cases of citizenship being canceled without a court ruling, based solely on documents from law enforcement agencies.

Human rights advocates express concern that lowering the age for taking the oath makes children more vulnerable to the law. Formally, they previously could not be deprived of citizenship for oath violations, but now such punishment becomes possible.

Moreover, the practice of revoking citizenship for failing to fulfill military obligations is not new. Klyga pointed out that Russian courts have previously annulled citizenship for those who avoided military registration, interpreting it as a violation of the law and the Constitution.

This is not the first initiative aimed at tightening control over the fulfillment of military obligations. In the summer of 2024, a law was passed to strip citizenship for evading military registration, and in 2023, courts had already been making such decisions.