MOSCOW, August 5 (RAPSI) – A ruling by Irish High Court granting a 74-year-old Russian man official registration of his birth in Ireland is being appealed, The Irish Times has reported.

According to The Irish Times, Sergey Chesnokov is a Russian national who was found entitled to have his birth registered by the An t-Ard Chláraitheoir (the Registrar General). Irish authorities challenged Chesnokov's Irish birth claim on grounds of insufficient evidence and are currently appealing the High Court decision.

Chesnokov refused to apply for any social welfare payments by the state and presented proofs for his claim which include several documents and testimonies from his family members, The Irish Times has reported. According to Chesnokov, he was born in a house on Dublin’s Henrietta Street on September 28th, 1940 during World War II. His birth was not registered with Irish authorities because it could be viewed as anti-Soviet in the USSR.

Justice Hedigan presiding over the case compared it to something out of a Russian novel and  the probability was that Chesnokov was born in Dublin, The Irish Times has reported. Justice Hedigan stated that 1940 was a time when the world seemed upside down.

“Vast armies swept across international boundaries bringing war, destruction and death on a scale almost unimaginable to the mind of western Europeans today,” he said, adding that being indicted as being anti-Soviet was a very real threat at the time.