Serbia Stripped Kadyrov's Nephew Of Citizenship
- 28.04.2026, 19:31
Five days after issuance.
The Serbian government has revoked the citizenship of Jakub Zakriev - the nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov - just five days after issuing him a passport to the country. The decision was signed by Prime Minister Juro Matsut and the document was published in the Official Gazette. According to the Serbian publication N1, the decision on the revocation says that Zakriev "can be considered a potential threat to national security." Meanwhile, citizenship was originally granted under Article 19 of the citizenship law - as a foreigner "of interest to the Republic of Serbia."
The revocation came less than 24 hours after media reports. The government reconsidered the decision using Article 184 of the Law on General Administrative Proceedings, which allows Serbian authorities to revoke their own decision if the revocation is necessary to eliminate "an immediate danger to human life and health, public security, public peace and public order," N1 explains.
Zakriev received his Serbian passport under a special procedure - such documents are usually issued to distinguished figures in business, science, sports or the arts. In this case, a person does not need to live in Serbia or renounce other citizenship, and the passport itself opens visa-free entry to more than 100 countries, including European countries. The fact that Kadyrov's nephew became a Serbian citizen was reported the day before, on April 27, by the Serbian publication Nedeljnik.
Jakub Zakriev is the son of Ramzan Kadyrov's own sister. He headed the administration of the head and government of Chechnya, was mayor of Grozny and the republic's agriculture minister. In July 2023, Zakriev became CEO of Danone Russia, which Vladimir Putin nationalized by decree. In March 2024, Putin removed the organization from state control, after which Danone announced the sale of its Russian division to Vamin R, a company owned by former Chechen deputy agriculture minister Ruslan Alisultanov.
According to Explainer, Zakriev and Alisultanov became ruble billionaires after taking control of Danone's assets. Kadyrov's nephew has a 1.5 billion ruble deposit in Gazprombank, as well as a plot of land and a house in the Millennium Park cottage village worth about 1 billion rubles. Alisultanov, in turn, opened a deposit of over 4 billion rubles and bought a penthouse near the Kremlin for 3 billion rubles. In 2024, Alisultanov was also granted Serbian citizenship.
Earlier "Important Stories" wrote that from the beginning of 2022 to April 2025, the Serbian authorities admitted to citizenship "in the interests of the republic" 204 Russians, among whom were employees of defense companies and managers of state-owned companies.