Key facts
- Russia has intensified surveillance, intimidation, and reprisals against critics overseas since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
- A UN expert cited a report documenting 400 cases of "transnational repression" by Russia.
- The number of "transnational repression" incidents tripled from 29 (2014-2021) to 89 (2022-2024).
- Russia is the most frequent user of Interpol arrest requests, though many are non-compliant.
- Methods include placing individuals on financial watchlists, blocking bank accounts, and restricting consular services.
Russia has significantly increased its efforts to surveil, intimidate, and retaliate against critics living outside its borders since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a United Nations expert. Mariana Katzarova, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, presented findings to the Human Rights Council in Geneva indicating that Russia is a leading perpetrator of "transnational repression."
Her report, based on 400 documented cases, highlights a shift from overt violence to more covert methods such as administrative and digital tools, including the use of arrest warrants, databases, and blocked bank accounts. The Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) list, which flags individuals as "terrorists and extremists," has been used to trigger red flags and freeze accounts in European and American financial institutions. Russian authorities have also reportedly restricted services and travel documents for citizens abroad, as exemplified by the case of Elena Pushkareva, who was denied consular services by the Russian Embassy in Canada.
While Russia has a history of alleged extraterritorial actions, including the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London, the scale and methods have evolved. The report found that incidents of "transnational repression" tripled between 2014-2021 and 2022-2024. Russia is also the most frequent user of Interpol arrest requests, although a significant portion of these requests were found to be non-compliant by Interpol's oversight body in 2024. Targets include anti-war emigrants, journalists, and non-governmental organizations, with incidents increasingly documented in Europe and beyond, though still frequent in South Caucasus and Central Asian states.