“Nowhere Safe”: UN Special Rapporteur Exposes Russia’s Global Campaign of Transnational Repression and Calls for a Legally Binding UN Convention
Today (September, 22), a UN expert warned that the Russian Federation has established a state system of surveillance, intimidation, and punishment targeting its critics abroad, as well as pressure on their families in Russia. She described Russia’s transnational repression as a violation of international law that threatens the sovereignty of host states and must be brought to an end.
“Transnational repression is not a series of isolated incidents abroad. It is the continued use outside Russia of the same structured, state-supported system of repression that I have documented inside the country,” said Mariana Katzarova, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, in her new report to the Human Rights Council. “Leaving Russia does not mean leaving Russian repression behind.”
In the report, “Nowhere Safe: Exporting the ‘Rule of Fear’ Beyond Borders — The Russian Federation’s Transnational Repression,” based on data on nearly 400 documented cases, the Special Rapporteur concludes that the Russian Federation’s transnational repression is part of a systematic and institutionalized state strategy, inextricably linked to the consolidation of authoritarian rule inside the country and its war of aggression against Ukraine.
“Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Federation has become one of the most active perpetrators of transnational repression. Accountability for such acts is virtually nonexistent, investigations are not conducted, Russian authorities deny involvement, and in some cases alleged perpetrators are rewarded or decorated,” Katzarova said.
The most serious forms of this repression involve targeted violence and threats to life: killings, attempted killings, attacks, and poisoning. Russia ranks third in the number of direct physical attacks among the 10 states responsible for more than 70 percent of documented incidents over the past decade.
The Russian Federation has a long history of political assassinations, including the killing of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019. Independent journalists and human rights defenders in exile have also reportedly been targeted in suspected poisoning cases, including Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Kostyuchenko in Munich, former Echo of Moscow journalist Irina Babloyan in Tbilisi in 2022, and Natalia Arno, president of the Free Russia Foundation, during trips to the Czech Republic and Germany in 2023.
Since February 2022, between 650,000 and 900,000 people have left Russia — the largest emigration from the Russian Federation since the beginning of the 20th century. As civil society in exile has expanded, the annual average number of documented cases of transnational repression has increased approximately eightfold: from 29 cases over the eight years before 2022 to 89 cases over the following three years. The number of documented convictions in absentia increased from four in 2022 to 157 in 2025. At least nine units of the Federal Security Service (FSB), as well as military and foreign intelligence services, prosecutors’ offices, and state ministries, are involved in transnational repression.
Katzarova’s report emphasizes that the main change since 2022 lies not so much in the scale of repression as in the methods used.
“Today, repression is carried out through arrest warrants, databases, banks and digital systems, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), as well as proxies. The Russian Federation is the most frequent user of Interpol Red Notices, with approximately half of the cases involving the Russian Federation that were reviewed by Interpol’s oversight body in 2024 found to be non-compliant with the organization’s constitution,” the Special Rapporteur noted.
The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) list of “terrorists and extremists” contains 21,541 individuals, at least 5,063 of whom have been targeted through politically motivated charges. This information is automatically disseminated through global compliance databases, including LSEG World-Check and LexisNexis, without verification of its accuracy, and banks freeze victims’ accounts in the absence of any evidence. In June 2026, the organization OVD-Info, whose monitoring data are widely used in international reporting on repression in Russia, was itself added to the list.
According to Katzarova, women who have fled forced marriages and domestic violence in Chechnya, LGBT activists, and Indigenous rights defenders face heightened risks of transnational repression.
A federal law adopted on August 4, 2026, establishes 14 categories of restrictions targeting citizens living abroad, ranging from the freezing of funds to the refusal to renew passports.
“Those who have left retain obligations associated with citizenship, but are deprived of much of its substance. This is ‘civic death’,” the Special Rapporteur said.
Abuse of international cooperation and mutual legal assistance mechanisms can have devastating consequences. Torture survivor Mansur Movlaev, who fled Chechnya, attempted suicide twice after spending nearly 18 months in detention in Kazakhstan on the basis of a Russian extradition request. Following repeated refusals to grant him asylum, he faces a direct risk of torture or execution if returned.
Nevertheless, host states, including Kazakhstan, continue to follow mutual legal assistance agreements with Russia, leaving victims without adequate protection, the Special Rapporteur noted.
“There is nothing inevitable about transnational repression,” Katzarova said. “Where host states uphold their obligations — respecting the principle of non-refoulement, carefully scrutinizing Russian Interpol Red Notices and wanted-person databases, and requiring banks to verify the basis for including individuals in Russian lists — transnational repression fails.”
Noting the absence of a legally binding international instrument specifically addressing transnational repression, the Special Rapporteur called for the development of a UN convention establishing common definitions, obligations for host states, and mechanisms to prevent violations, ensure accountability, and facilitate interstate cooperation.
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