BY EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Oxana Shevel 

The case of four Crimean residents, including a well known film director Oleg Sentsov, who were arrested in Crimea in May of last year, and since then transferred to Russia and held in jail on terrorism charge that rights groups view as politically motivated, reveals complicated citizenship situation of Crimean residents since the annexation of the peninsula by Russia last spring. Russia took the view that, by virtue of being Crimean residents at the time Crimea was “united” with Russia, the arrested automatically became Russian citizens since they did not formally register their wish to refuse Russian citizenship and retain Ukrainian citizenship during the time period allowed by the new Russian authorities.Russian authorities denied repeated requests of imprisoned men to see Ukrainian consul or be treated as Ukrainian citizens.

In January 2015, a court in Crimea denied the appeal of one of the men, Oleksandr Kolchenko, to retain his right to Ukrainian citizens.  In April 2014, Sentsov and Kolchenko appealed to the European Court on Human Rights. According to a Russian media report citing interviews with the men’s lawyers, the appeal claims that their rights under Article 8 of the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms were violated. The argument is that Article 8, which guarantees right to respect for private and family life, also includes the right to retain and accept citizenship, and by forcing Russian citizenship on them against their will Russia violated this right. To uphold his right to Ukrainian citizenship, Sentsov has argued that he’s “not a serf to be flung, together with land, into citizenship.”

If the ECHR rules on this case, it will have implications beyond these two men since there are many others in Crimea who were assigned Russian citizenship against their will. As detailed in an earlier EUDO post, following annexation Russia made it very difficult for Crimean residents to apply to declare their intention to remain Ukrainian citizens during the short time period when such applications were accepted.

The case of the four arrested Crimeans could also renew attention to the issue of dual citizenship in Ukraine. In early May, Sentvov’s lawyer stated that Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office admitted that Sentsov de facto has two citizenships, Ukrainian and Russia, but he is treated by the prosecution as Russian citizen only since Ukraine does not recognise dual citizenship and there is no treaty between Russia and Ukraine on dual citizenship. Sentsov’s defense will continue to argue that he should only be considered citizen of Ukraine since he never requested and cannot be forced into Russian citizenship.