According to State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, the measures target individuals accused of harming the country, spreading dissent, or evading criminal charges overseas.
New Restrictions Target Russians Abroad Facing Prosecution
Under the new rules, targeted individuals face a sweeping set of domestic restrictions. Bank accounts are frozen, property and vehicles cannot be sold, banking application access is blocked, and professional licenses are suspended. Furthermore, state and consular services—including the issuance of international passports and the certification of wills or powers of attorney—are entirely refused.
Expansion of Russia’s Legal Toolkit Against Dissent
The July 2026 law represents an acceleration of legal measures designed to suppress political opposition, a trend that escalated following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In the initial weeks of the conflict, the State Duma criminalized the spread of information deemed false regarding the armed forces, carrying sentences of up to 15 years, alongside penalties for discrediting the military. Additional amendments to the foreign agents law, originally enacted in 2012, expanded state powers to designate individuals as foreign agents, imposing severe restrictions on public life and travel. Russian communications regulators blocked more than 25,000 websites by mid-2025 as part of these ongoing enforcement efforts.
Legal Analysis and Impact on Expatriates
Lawyers from the First Department, an open community of Russian legal experts and human rights defenders, stated that the cumulative effect amounts to a de facto deprivation of citizenship. According to the group’s legal analysis, individuals recognized as evading prosecution are reduced to an internally cancelled citizen status, where their property, accounts, and business assets can be leveraged against them by the state. The independent human rights media project OVD-Info reported that between February 2022 and late 2025, at least 1,299 people faced criminal prosecution for opposing the war, with hundreds remaining imprisoned.
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