There was a time when citizenship meant something solid. A guarantee. A bond between an individual and the state that could not be casually broken. That illusion is now dead. The case of Mark Bullen makes that brutally clear.
By Michael, alias Foreign Agent Intel, and independant journalist creating videos and writing articles from Russia and Donbass (please follow/support him on Substack) | Video – When Citizenship Becomes a Weapon
Mark Bullen, a natural-born British citizen. Former police officer. Fluent Russian speaker. A man who lived quietly in Saint Petersburg, worked in football, wrote about crime, and largely kept his head down. Not a firebrand. Not a dissident. Not a public enemy. And yet, with no explanation, no public justification, and no transparency, the British state revoked his passport and stripped his citizenship.
No charges. No court ruling. No due process anyone is allowed to see.
This is not about what Mark said or did. That is the point. The silence from the Home Office is the message. Power no longer feels the need to explain itself. The shock is intentional. The uncertainty is the punishment.
Western governments spent decades lecturing the world about human rights, rule of law, and protections against arbitrary state power. Now they deploy the very mechanisms they once condemned, and they do so selectively, quietly, and with plausible deniability. Citizenship has become conditional. A license, not a right.
The precedent matters. Once the line is crossed, it never moves back.
The British government originally justified these powers under the banner of counter-terrorism. The public was told this was about extremists, about safety, about exceptional cases. But the scope always widens. It always does. Today it is framed as security. Tomorrow it is loyalty. After that, compliance.
Mark’s case is particularly telling because it is so difficult to justify even within the state’s own narrative. He was not publicly pro-Russian. He was not politically active. He was not campaigning, broadcasting, or challenging power. If this can happen to someone like him, it can happen to anyone.
And that is precisely why it happened.
This is a warning shot, not just to expatriates, but to anyone who believes distance offers protection. Geography no longer matters. Silence no longer matters. Good behavior no longer matters. Only alignment does.
Contrast this with Russia, a country endlessly caricatured in Western media as authoritarian and lawless. Yet here, residency rules are clear. Citizenship pathways are explicit. If the state has a problem with you, you know it. You are told. The rules are visible, even when they are strict.
The West now operates in the shadows it once claimed to oppose.
The passport, once a symbol of freedom, has become a leash. And increasingly, it is yanked not to punish crimes, but to enforce obedience.
The tragedy is not only that Mark lost a document. It is that millions are beginning to realize how fragile their supposed freedoms always were.
By Michael, alias Foreign Agent Intel, please follow/support him on Substack
Related: Former British police officer has citizenship revoked on ’national security’ grounds after moving to Russia, Daily Mail
