How Can Research on Transnational Repression Help Russians?

How Can Research on Transnational Repression Help Russians?

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, has released a report on transnational repression. In it, she used OVD-Info data for 2025 and 2026. We released our own report on this topic back at the beginning of 2025, together with SAVT and VyvozhuKom.

▶️ What is transnational repression anyway?

It is actions by a country’s authorities aimed at persecuting their citizens abroad. For example: killings, extraditions, cyber threats, denial of entry to a specific country, and denial of public services.

▶️ What is new in the latest data?

The number of convictions in absentia in political cases in Russia is growing: while in 2022 only 4 were documented, in 2025 the number reached as many as 157.

Cooperation with Kazakhstan has become closer. For example, the country recently approved the extradition of Chechen activist Mansur Movlayev. Last week, he twice tried to take his own life so as not to be returned to Russia.

They [Kadyrov’s men] will torment me, torture me and kill me, then they’ll say I did it myself. I will not let myself be tortured anymore

he wrote in a suicide note.

▶️ Will this report help Russians?

Yes. The situation of Russians persecuted abroad can be influenced by the countries where they live. Those countries may listen to arguments based on human rights and humanitarian considerations. It is often the decisions of these states that determine whether a person will be safe: they review extradition requests, grant asylum and residence permits, respond to Russia’s refusal to issue documents, or to attempts to use international legal mechanisms to persecute people.

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