What actually are the consequences of being "stripped of citizenship"?

Question

In this other question, Russians were being threatened with loss of citizenship for failing to sign a contract to serve in the military.

But I assume a non-citizen wouldn't be eligible for military service in the first place, and that the government generally has less control over a non-citizen anyway.

So what would the 'bad' consequences of being stripped of citizenship actually be in this case?

Answer 1

There are many Central Asia migrant workers in Russia who come here from certain visa-less neighbouring countries (the law makes it easy for migrants of such countries to be hired legally). They retain their original citizenship, but then some can also get Russian citizenship. The article and the question cited is about those people. So consequences are:

• they are stripped of their Russian citizenship
• they are deported to their country of origin (not necessarily per se, but in reality it would be so)
• as a consequence they'd lose whatever work and relationships they had in Russia
• and probably they are barred from coming back.

Answer 2

Say a person is living in a country, having the citizenship of that country. This brings many civil rights, not least of them the right to live and work in that country. If the person is stripped of citizenship, there are two possibilities:

• The person has another citizenship. He or she becomes an alien where he or she works and lives, subject to deportation now or at a future date. Just look at recent news from the US to understand how easily even permanent residents may be deported.
• The person has no other citizenship. He or she becomes stateless. The country may try to deport the person, if there is a state willing to take the person. Otherwise the legal status becomes much more complicated -- perhaps no right to work, etc.

For people who have another citizenship and are comfortable with it, getting out of Russia might sound like a good idea. For immigrants from Central Asia, less so.

Answer 3

Russian military service legal framework is somewhat of a moving target in the recent years, but here's what we have:

1. Since at least Soviet times, Russian men, when turning 18 (as well as women of military significance, e.g. doctors, nurses, etc) are required to register at the local conscription office. Registration is to be updated in regard to place of residence, education, health conditions, etc... until ~65y of age. Naturalised citizens are expected to do the same. The registration makes one available for both draft and (should a need arise) mobilisation.

2. The point above was profoundly disregarded since 1990s and well until the end of 2022. No one cared and no one enforced the requirement en masse (targeted enforcement was indeed a practice).

3. There is 1-year obligatory military service for men that is expected to start between 18 and 30 (27 up to 1 January 2024) years of age, subject to postponing for variety of reasons (e.g. university attendance or medical conditions). Because of (2) and a variety of other factors, less than half of the men who would be considered fit really did serve. (Note: A fulfilled military obligation is a requirement for a lot of career paths in Russia.)

Things changed a lot in late 2022 and the enforcement for both registration and service became gradually stronger.

One of the new enforcement measures is that naturalised Russians became subject to removal of Russian citizenship for a failure to register at the conscription office. Media outlets are frequent to depict police raids at places where migrants live, work, worship or socialise. Those caught without a valid military registration are either forced to register or deported to their country of origin with their Russian citizenship removed.

Russians by birth are not stripped of citizenship, this has no legal basis (as of now) and would be counter-productive in regard to making them available for draft or mobilisation.