Former police officer Mark Bullen has become the first person of British origin to be stripped of his British citizenship over links to Russia, a decision taken on national security grounds.
This is reported by The Times.
The publication notes that Bullen received a notice of deprivation of citizenship in October. The order was issued by the head of the British Home Office, Shabana Mahmud.
“You are being deprived of your British citizenship on the grounds that it is in the public interest to do so,” the official letter said.
She also noted that the evidence on which the decision is based “cannot be made public for reasons of national security.”
The publication explains that stripping citizenship is a tool the government rarely uses and is most often used against terrorism suspects. Previously, only two people, both of whom were of non-British origin, were stripped of their citizenship for ties to Russia.
“Revoking British citizenship is an important tool to protect the country from the most dangerous individuals, including those involved in terrorism, activities in the interests of enemy states or serious organised crime. Such decisions are never taken lightly, but the government will always take the necessary measures to strengthen the country's security,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs commented.
Bullen has lived in Russia since 2014, where he works in communications for Zenit football club. The club is owned by Gazprom, which was hit by UK and US sanctions in January 2025 over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The former police officer is married to a Russian woman and has four children, but regularly came to Britain to visit family.
In the early 2000s, he tried to move to Russia, but he failed, so he joined the Hertfordshire Police in the UK. During his 11 years of service, Bullen, who learned Russian on his own, repeatedly invited Russian police officers to Britain. In 2010, he spent a month in St. Petersburg as part of an exchange of experience.
The man says that his frequent trips to Russia attracted the attention of a special police unit back in 2013. In 2022, he received Russian citizenship and stated that it was “a dream of his whole life.”
In 2024, when Bullen was visiting the UK again, he was stopped by police at Luton Airport. Bullen said he was questioned for four hours and asked, among other things, what he knew about the Salisbury poisoning. The attempted poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian spy convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter Yulia in March 2018. They were found with signs of poisoning on a park bench in Salisbury, where the former GRU colonel lived at the time. According to the British authorities, Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, and the attempt was organized by Russian special services. in 2018.
When asked by the media for comment on April 10, Bullen responded that his lawyers had advised him “not to speak to the media at this time.”