DUSHANBE -- Qadam Ismatov has no country to call home.
The 60-year-old ethnic Tajik, who was once known for criticizing the Tajik government, has been left stateless and stranded in Tajikistan after Moscow revoked his Russian citizenship and extradited him to Dushanbe last year.
Ismatov was wanted by Tajikistan on suspicion of having links to Group 24, an opposition movement that Dushanbe banned and branded a "terrorist and extremist organization" in 2014.
A criminal case against Ismatov has since been dropped by Tajik prosecutors, but his appeals to the Russian authorities to reinstate his citizenship remain unanswered.
Ismatov, who was born in Soviet Tajikistan, has lived in Russia since the early 1990s and obtained a Russian passport in 2005. Ismatov says he built a home, family, and life in the southwestern Russian city of Saratov, where he worked as a driver.
Ismatov also became active on social media, often criticizing both the Tajik government and its political opponents.
The social media posts put the ordinary driver living thousands of kilometers from Dushanbe on the radar of Tajik officials, who do not tolerate dissent and hunt down their critics at home and abroad.
Ismatov recalls his world turning upside down when a Russian court unexpectedly looked into his citizenship case in 2021 and revoked his passport, accusing him of giving false information on his application.
Ismatov denies the allegation as "baseless, blatant slander." He believes the Russian court ruling was connected to a Tajik plan to bring him to Dushanbe to face criminal charges for his criticism of the government.
"[The prosecutors] were not able to provide any evidence to back their charge that I had allegedly lied on my citizenship application. I demanded proof but they couldn't provide any," Ismatov told RFE/RL. "But the court ruled to strip me of my citizenship anyway."
Ismatov's appeals were denied.
In August 2023, Russia extradited Ismatov to Dushanbe, where he was detained on a charge of "membership in an extremist group." But Tajik prosecutors later dropped the case against Ismatov under an amnesty.
Prosecutors said Ismatov had abandoned his "criminal activities" in 2017 and had "ceased contacts with terrorist and extremist organizations," namely the European-based National Alliance of Tajikistan that brings together several opposition parties, including Group 24 and the Islamic Renaissance Party.
Left In Limbo
Ismatov was released in December 2023 and has since been appealing to the Russian and Tajik authorities -- including the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe -- to help reinstate his Russian citizenship. Ismatov says he has received no response.
RFE/RL has contacted the embassy for comment.
"I have a home in Russia, my wife is there, I have a job and property there," Ismatov said. "I have lived more than half of my life in Russia and I want to return to my home, to my family."
Ismatov is stranded in Tajikistan with no home and income, staying with relatives in Dushanbe and the Rasht Valley.
Asked about Ismatov's options to restore his Russian citizenship, prominent Tajik lawyer Shokirjon Hakimov suggested that "he also has the right to appeal to the Russian human rights ombudsman and the representatives of the UN in Tajikistan."
"If Ismatov successfully proves his case, he also will ultimately be eligible for compensation for the moral and financial damages he has suffered," Hakimov added.
Russia, a major ally and strategic partner of Tajikistan, has extradited numerous ethnic Tajiks -- including many political activists -- to Dushanbe regardless of their citizenship status.
Among the most prominent cases, Russia deported two Tajik migrant leaders -- Karomat Sharifov and Izzat Amon -- in 2017 and 2021, respectively.
Sharifov and Amon, both outspoken critics of the Tajik government, were also stripped of their Russian citizenship on disputed charges of violating immigration laws.
Several Tajik activists, including influential community leaders from Tajikistan's restive Gorno-Badakhshan region, have disappeared in Russia in recent years and later reappeared in police custody in Dushanbe.
