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Russian citizen renounces citizenship after Putin’s invasion of Crimea

April 5 2014

Notification

Mr. Putin:

The purpose of this letter is to inform you, as the bearer of the Russian Executive Authority, that I no longer consider myself a Citizen of Russia.  Please do not count on me fulfilling any duties as Russian Citizen, nor bother to provide any assistance a Russian national could possibly count from Russian Federation.

I left Russian Federation in 1997.  In 2009, I obtained US Citizenship., having taken the Oath of Allegiance to the USA on November 18, 2009.  During the period from November 2009 though March 2014, I perceived it possible to remain Russian Citizen having become a Citizen of the USA.  However, the perfidious violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine by Russian Federation in defiance of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, committed under the pretext of defending Russian citizens in a foreign state, has made it impossible for me to keep my Russian Citizenship, for I cannot afford to jeopardize the USA, making this country vulnerable to a similar aggression in case the Russian leadership all the sudden decide that my rights are violated in the USA in any way.

Although I am aware about the routine process of abandonment of Russian Citizenship, I do not find it possible to follow it due to the following three reasons:  (1) the application form states:  “please permit me to renounce my [Russian] citizenship”; I am of an opinion that abandonment of a citizenship is not a petition, but rather, a notification;  (2) the [Russian] consular processing fee will constitute my contribution to the Russian Treasury; according to the Oath of Allegiance I took, I cannot finance a  country, hostile to the USA; (3) demand for a letter from the [Russian] Tax Office (which I cannot possibly provide, for I never received a salary in Russia).

Since you, for one reason or another, perform the duty of the President of Russian Federation, and you personally, according to Chapter VI Article 29 clause 1 v) of the Russian Citizenship Act of 2002, can record an act of expatriation, I hereby declare that for the reasons above I will no longer have Russian Citizenship.

To this notarized notice composed in three copies (one for you, one for US Authorities, one for myself) attached please find:  (1) my Russian passport (original – for you; copies  of the first page – for the US authorities and myself; (2) a copy of my US Passport front page (3) appropriate provisions of the Russian Citizenship Act; (4) Russian and English copies of Budapest Memorandum of 1994; (5) text of the Oath of Allegiance to the USA (with Russian translation)

Dr. Vladislav A. Litosh, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

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