New Russian law inflicts “civic death” on Government critics abroad as “traitors to the Motherland”: UN Special Rapporteur

GENEVA – The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, today warned that a new Russian law imposing sweeping restrictions on Russian exiles is the newest tool against Government critics and anti-war voices, escalating repression at home and transnational repression abroad. She issued the following statement:

“On 4 August, President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 284-FZ on “temporary restrictive measures in respect of persons who are outside the Russian Federation and are evading the execution of punishment”, together with a companion amendments law, leaving those affected extremely vulnerable and stripped of a range of civil rights.

The Ministry of Justice will maintain a public list of Russians abroad with an unserved criminal conviction, or convictions for certain administrative offences. Once listed, 14 categories of restrictions apply: the freezing of funds and property; withdrawal of most consular functions, including issuing and renewing passports and registering marriages and name changes; refusal of all digital State services; suspension of licences and accreditation; annulment of electronic signatures; and bans on driving, vehicle registration, property transactions, notarial acts, powers of attorney, credit, self-employment and remote banking.

The law is presented as a means of securing “the inevitability of punishment.” Alongside criminal convictions, it is triggered by administrative offences, every one of them politically motivated: “foreign agents” rules, “undesirable organisations”, “war censorship laws” (“discrediting the armed forces” and “fake news” about the army), calls for sanctions or “to violate the territorial integrity” of Russia. Russian courts have used these provisions since 2022 to punish journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, artists and anti-war activists.

Vyacheslav Volodin, Chair of the State Duma, left no doubt about the targets, describing them as “extremists” and “traitors to the Motherland”.

No court decides who is listed. The person is not notified or heard; the measures are called “temporary”, yet the law sets no time limit.

In substance this is a targeted punishment of anti-war voices and Government critics en masse, designed to make life outside Russia unsustainable. Those affected keep the duties of citizenship but lose most of its content thus rendering them de facto stateless.

As Russia remains bound by its international human rights law obligations, I call on the Russian authorities to repeal this law and quash convictions handed down in absentia in politically motivated cases.

I call on Member States to see this law for what it is: a severe form of transnational repression. States hosting Russians at risk should ensure they can obtain and renew identity and travel documents, regularise their residence, retain access to banking and employment, and should not forcibly return them, or give legal effect to designations under this law. Full protection to Government critics, human rights defenders and anti-war voices in exile is paramount for the survival of Russian civil society.”