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Transnational repression by Russia refers to efforts by the Russian government to control its diaspora and exiles. This phenomenon targets former insiders and individuals perceived as threats to the government's security. The methods include assassination, manipulation of the Interpol notice system, and surveillance. Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia's Chechen Republic, conducts a total repression campaign against Chechen exiles.[1]
Freedom House has documented at least 854 direct, physical incidents of transnational repression globally from 2014 to 2022.[2] 14 governments have used Interpol notices in detaining and deporting individuals. Russia accounted for 31% of such incidents. Russia's campaign heavily relies on assassination, targeting former insiders and individuals that the regime perceives as threats to its security.[3] Assassinations made up one quarter of all acts of transnational repression conducted by the Russian government, while one third of all assassinations globally were committed by Russia.[1][4][5]
Assassination
In 2021, Freedom House reported 26 assassinations or attempted assassinations globally since 2014. The Russian transnational repression campaign accounted for seven of them. Additionally, Russia is also responsible for assaulting and detaining its nationals abroad as well as conducting renditions and unlawful deportations.[1]
Freedom House found that the Kremlin tends to target individuals who possibly defected to member states of NATO and cooperated with those governments' intelligence agencies; ones considered to have been involved in armed conflict with Russia in the past; or those whose political or business activities conflict with the security services. It has demonstrated a willingness to take the life of perceived threats at least in Ukraine, Germany, Bulgaria, and the U.K.[1]
Interpol notice
The Kremlin also harasses and detains its nationals in exile through manipulating and abusing the Interpol notice system. A significant case was its targeting of Bill Browder, a whistleblower who campaigned to sanction officials involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s murder, corruption, and human rights violations. He was placed on Interpol’s ‘wanted list’ by Russian authorities.[6]
Russia is responsible for 38% of public Red Notices globally. Due to lack of transparency at the Interpol, it is challenging to determine how the government is able to use this notice system to such an extensive degree. The government has also been able to use Interpol's Red Notices in detaining individuals who reside in the U.S. for extensive periods of time. Due to Red Notices from Russia, there have been asylum seekers who have spent over one year in ICE detention.[1][7][8]
In 2021, governments of in Russia, People's Republic of China, Turkey, and Bahrain managed to have their nationals detained in Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Kenya, and Italy based on Red Notices. Most of these detained individuals involved in political activism or civic activism.[5]
Surveillance and hacking
Russian nationals abroad who are high-profile critics of the government's politics are subjected to surveillance and hacking campaigns.[1][9]
Russian communities abroad
The Kremlin also exerts control over Russian communities abroad, such as Russian cultural institutions, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian-language media. Since the Soviet Union's dissolution, the government again gained control over certain official cultural institutions that had a presence abroad. In 2006, under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, the Orthodox Church reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, a church that emerged after the Russian Revolution. In 2008, the government launched Rossotrudnichestvo to "coordinate activities meant to facilitate engagement with the diaspora, as well as other formal 'soft power' activities," as reported by Freedom House.[1]
Domestically focused
Unlike other governments that commit transnational repression, the Kremlin does not try to control the entirety of the Russian diaspora through coercion. It instead focuses on activism repression at home and controlling the information environment so that exiles are unable to reach domestic citizens.[1]
Campaign against Chechens
Unlike other Russian nationals, citizens from Russia's Chechen Republic (Chechnya) face a total transnational repression campaign. This campaign is directed by Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Republic, with approval of Russia's central government. Inside the republic, Kadyrov rules with terror and brutality to "ensure political stability." The regime is marked by torture, extrajudicial killings, anti-gay purges, murders of journalists, murders of human rights advocates, and enforced disappearances.[10] Chechnya's authorities have subjected hundreds of citizens to such violence.[11] As a result of such severe repression, tens of thousands of Chechen citizens fled the nation. Many of them seek asylum in European countries.[1]
Kadyrov's repression follows Chechen exiles. This began when two assassinations took place in early 2009. Sulim Yamadayev, a former military commander, was assassinated in Dubai. Umar Israilov, a former bodyguard who exposed Kadyrov's brutality, was assassinated in Austria before he could testify in court.[12] Chechen dissidents outside of Russia have then been "killed and attacked at alarming rates," as reported by Freedom House. Kadyrov has also publicly made his intent to control the diaspora clear.[1]
- In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer, was killed via radiation poisoning.[13] He was poisoned by radioactive polonium-210 and died three weeks after in London. Investigations discovered that he was poisoned by two Russian citizens who acted under the Federal Security Service's direction.[14][1]
- In 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former intelligence officer, and his daughter Yulia were subjected to an attempted assassination where a nerve agent was involved.[15][1]
- Journalist Galina Timchenko previously worked for a Russian newspaper then an online media outlet but was terminated after she published material regarding Russia's Crimea annexation. She then relocated to Latvia and cofounded online media outlet Meduza. Meduza was deemed an "undesirable organization" by Russia in 2023, which would subject anyone working with it to criminal prosecution. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the outlet's office has been vandalized and subjected to digital attacks, and Timchenko's personal device has also been attacked.[16][17]
- In 2021, Turkey arrested six individuals who had ties to the Russian government, for preparing “armed actions targeting Chechen dissidents.”[5]
- In March 2022, governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. called upon Interpol to suspend the Russian state's access to the systems.[5]
- In October 2021, the U.S. updated the licensing regulations of the Commerce Department, restricting the sale of hardware or software that allowed for spyware's use or development to nations that engage in violation of human rights, including transnational repression, such as the Russian government.[5]
- In March 2023, Transnational Repression Policy Act was introduced by a group of bipartisan Senators.[18]
- In 2022, the U.K. government established a Defending Democracy Taskforce. One of this Taskforce's goals was to address foreign states’ efforts to suppress free expression in the diaspora communities.[19]
- To better trace and prosecute transnational repression, the FBI in the U.S. has adopted a definition of the term, and launched a website for victims to report such acts by foreign governments.[19]
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