Moscow is using its relations with neighboring countries to deport or arrest Russian refugees who oppose the war in Ukraine.
No one is safe if they oppose the regime – this is the message that the Kremlin wants to convey to all those who think they are safe if they leave Russia.
Lev Skoriakin, 23, fled Russia in January 2023 after being accused of organizing a protest outside the Moscow headquarters of the FSB, the Russian security service. Because his passport was confiscated by the Russian authorities, he had limited options for refuge.
"I could have chosen Armenia, Kazakhstan, or Kyrgyzstan. I don't know why I chose Kyrgyzstan. At that time, we (Russians seeking to leave the country) thought that if we kept our heads down, we would be safe. But we were wrong," he told The Guardian.
Late in the evening on October 16, 2023, several men knocked on the door of his dormitory in the capital of Bishkek. They were from the Kyrgyzstan security services and asked him to come with them. They took him to the airport and handed him over to Russian security service agents, who handcuffed him and accompanied him back to Moscow.
Three Types of People Moscow Wants to Catch
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country in search of safety and to avoid conscription, many to Central Asian countries. Since they do not have passports, many Russians go to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where they can enter with just their identity documents. However, more and more are finding that neighboring countries in the region, especially Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, are not safe.
At least 14 Russian citizens were either detained or deported at Russia's request from Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan in 2022 and 2023 alone, according to a Freedom House report on transnational repression.
Grady Vaughan from Freedom House says there are three main types of people that Moscow authorities want to bring back to the country: "These are, obviously, former military officials and soldiers who were afraid of being called up for war and left. Then there were independent activists, both anarchists and anti-war activists, who found themselves detained for their activism and sometimes deported. The third group is journalists."
Although they sought to remain neutral after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, cooperation between local security services and Moscow's has continued unabated.
"There is this history of coordination that has made Russia rely more easily on the security services of these countries to increase pressure or intimidate Russian exiles," Vaughan said.
What Russia Wants to Show Those Who Flee
Alina Gorshenina, 29, was born in Russia and grew up in Kyrgyzstan. In June, she was traveling in a group organized by tourists to Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, with her mother and ten-year-old daughter on Children's Day when she was arrested at the border crossing.
Without Alina's knowledge, Russian authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for her, accusing her of assaulting a judge in Russia. Believing she would be sent back to Kyrgyzstan, she told her mother and daughter to continue their journey without her.
The woman had visited Russia only twice in her life - the last time seven years ago - but had volunteered for the team of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and was a fervent activist against Putin, often engaging in disputes on social media with pro-Putin public figures. "My posts must have offended someone high up," she told the British newspaper.
Alina spent two months behind bars in Kazakhstan before being released and returning home. She now collaborates with a Russian lawyer to fight the charges brought from Russia.
"I think Russia is trying to intimidate people and show that even those activists who have left can be arrested. They want to scare people," said Murat Adam, a Kazakh lawyer who has worked on several cases of people detained at Moscow's request.
In some of these cases, Kazakhstan has refused to deport people to Russia. But this is not due to Kazakhstan's goodwill, but rather because Moscow has failed to provide all the necessary documents to obtain deportation.
"Our general prosecutor's office would agree to deport these individuals if Russia provided enough evidence of their wrongdoing and its intent to prosecute. But no one is providing the information, and Kazakhstan cannot keep people in detention indefinitely," the lawyer said.
After being extradited to Russia, Skoriakin expected a long sentence. However, after pleading guilty, he was fined and released. He has now moved to Germany, which granted him asylum before he went to Kyrgyzstan.
Nevertheless, he lives with the shadow of fear constantly hanging over him. "I don't feel completely safe anywhere, but it's definitely safer here than in Kyrgyzstan," he said. "Russia's goal is clear: to show that no one can escape from them."
T.D.