That dude has a history of not understanding what is going on. The only thing the passport revocation did was give Russia an additional excuse to tell him to keep him in the airport instead of allowing him to meet people outside the airport while they figured out what to do with him. They could have let him out of the airport or onto an airplane at any time. There is no requirement for travel documents to deport someone from your country.
Yes, they could. As soon as he landed in Russia, he was under Russian jurisdiction. There is a legal fiction that he doesn’t have to go through immigration, so he doesn’t need a visa, but Russian law still applies to him, and he can be detained for questioning without charge indefinitely under Russian law. This happens so frequently that it happened just yesterday. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-893628
That dude has a history of not understanding what is going on. The only thing the passport revocation did was give Russia an additional excuse to tell him to keep him in the airport instead of allowing him to meet people outside the airport while they figured out what to do with him. They could have let him out of the airport or onto an airplane at any time. There is no requirement for travel documents to deport someone from your country.
Obviously, but they couldn’t have technically (important word here) held him there without the revocation
Yes, they could. As soon as he landed in Russia, he was under Russian jurisdiction. There is a legal fiction that he doesn’t have to go through immigration, so he doesn’t need a visa, but Russian law still applies to him, and he can be detained for questioning without charge indefinitely under Russian law. This happens so frequently that it happened just yesterday. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-893628