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On Tuesday, October 14, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released copies of documents that served as the basis for revoking the Ukrainian citizenship of Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov. Among them were a copy of a document from the Russian migration service confirming that Trukhanov held Russian citizenship, as well as two other documents: a copy of his international passport and an extract from the electronic registry of the Crimean migration service stating that the passport belonged to him. (In Russia, citizens are issued two separate “passports”: one for domestic use, and one for travel abroad.)
According to The Insider’s findings, Russian databases indeed show that Trukhanov once held Russian citizenship — in fact, he has held two Russian passports. The first, with a number beginning 4604, was issued on April 15, 2003, and was later reported as lost. The second, beginning with 4611, was issued on March 24, 2011, by the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry for the Moscow Region “as a replacement for the lost one.” The application for that passport, also obtained by The Insider, cited “reaching the age of 45” as the reason for the request.
According to SBU information, in 2017 representatives of the mayor appealed to Russian authorities, and a court in the Moscow Region annulled his domestic Russian passport. However, in additional clarifications, the court stated that the annulment or renunciation of such a document “does not entail loss of citizenship of the Russian Federation.”
Nevertheless, the copy of the international passport published by the SBU is clearly a fake. Its number indicates that it was issued on November 2, 2010 — not in December 2015 (contrary to the claims of the Ukrainian authorities). A passport with that same number was indeed issued on that date, but to an entirely different person: a Russian woman named Tatyana, who continues to travel internationally with it to this day. The forgers even forgot that the name Hennadiy is transliterated with a double “n” in Latin letters.
Border-crossing records show that after the start of the war in 2014, Trukhanov did not travel to Russia — at least not under his own name — and there is no indication that he currently holds any valid Russian international passport.
It is likely that if Trukhanov had decided to travel to Russia after 2014, he might have faced difficulties there: Russian databases indicate that the country’s security services took an interest in him due to his “involvement in the development of the Ukrainian events of 2013–2014,” whatever that might mean.
The fact of the forgery is all the more relevant given that, on Oct.14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree revoking the Ukrainian citizenship of Trukhanov, along with that of former lawmaker Oleg Tsarev and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin.
On Wednesday, Oct. 15, Zelensky signed a decree establishing the Odesa City Military Administration and appointed Serhiy Lysak as its head. The military administration was created under Ukraine’s martial law provisions. Its formation was assigned to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Odesa Regional State Administration.