Leader of the Tajik diaspora stripped of citizenship and expelled for 50 years

The leader of the Tajik diaspora in the Perm Krai of Russia, Saifiddin Odinaev, has been stripped of his Russian citizenship and expelled from the country.

According to the press service of the Federal Security Service for the region, the basis for this measure was a threat to Russia’s national security. It is reported that Saifiddin Odinaev lost his citizenship “for actions that pose a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation,” as stated in the FSB press release. The specific actions that Odinaev committed are not specified.

Previously, in 2014, Saifiddin Odinaev was sentenced to 11 months in a general regime colony for robbery. According to the investigation, he forcibly took a mobile phone from a fellow countryman. Later, the charge of robbery was supplemented with extortion in a large amount (part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the investigation, Saifiddin Odinaev demanded 600,000 rubles from the same Shoev for not committing crimes related to the illegal drug trade.

It is unknown how Saifiddin Odinaev, his lawyer, and relatives reacted to the loss of citizenship and his expulsion from Russia.

Saifiddin Odinaev is not the first leader of the Tajik diaspora in Russia to be expelled from the country in recent years. In December 2017, the head of the “Tajik Labor Migrants” movement, Karamat Sharipov, was found guilty of illegally obtaining Russian citizenship. He was also stripped of his citizenship and expelled from Russia. On May 9, 2020, he died in Tajikistan from a heart attack.

Sharipov had repeatedly stated that his expulsion was ordered and related to his activities in defending the rights of labor migrants.

Additionally, in the spring of 2021, Izzat Amon, the head of the Migrant Assistance Center in Moscow, was expelled from Russia to Tajikistan. Upon arrival in Dushanbe, he was detained and ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison on fabricated charges of fraud. Relatives and human rights activists consider this case to be politically motivated.