“Deprived” Russian citizens abroad: the Federation Council approved 14 restrictions for convicted people living overseas

On July 24, the Federation Council backed two bills at once that introduce 14 restrictive measures against Russians who have a final court decision in force. The measures target people who are outside Russia and, according to the relevant authorities, are evading punishment. Earlier, the initiatives were considered by the State Duma unanimously.

At the same time, it is important to note that the final status of the documents will be determined only after the President signs them. Once signed, the restrictions are expected to apply from the date of official publication, and the package does not provide for a transition period.

What determines inclusion in the list

For a specific person to be brought into the restrictions mechanism, several conditions must be met. In practice, the system relies on a set of three confirmations:

1) the criminal conviction has entered into legal force, or an administrative offense decision has also entered into legal force;

2) confirmation by a competent authority that the person is evading the execution of the sentence;

3) evidence that the individual left Russia and is staying abroad.

For criminal cases, the list of articles is not limited: convictions under any sections of the Criminal Code of Russia can be taken into account. For administrative cases, the scope is narrower: among other things, it includes offenses connected with the activities of “foreign agents,” public discrediting of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, calls for sanctions against Russia, calls to violate Russia’s territorial integrity, and participation in organizations recognized in Russia as undesirable.

The key point: the measures are not aimed at people under investigation, but at those who are already convicted or have a final administrative decision.

Which restrictions are specifically included

The package covers several areas, but the most visible are property and financial restrictions.

Financial component: credit institutions must refuse to issue loans and credits, and also restrict access to their services (specifically regarding money transfers). In addition, the bill proposes freezing funds and other property with stated exceptions.

Property and business activity: registration authorities will return, without consideration, applications for cadastral registration and for registration of rights to real estate. The package also introduces bans and limits on:

— registration of vehicles;

— limiting the right to operate transport;

— registering as an individual entrepreneur;

— постановка/учёт как плательщика tax on professional income.

Legal capacity and services: state bodies and municipalities may not provide services electronically, and may refuse or suspend licenses and accreditations. The package additionally provides for refusals to perform notarial actions. Under the logic of the bill, powers of attorney are terminated and electronic signatures are invalidated (however, it does not spell out how they will later be restored or replaced).

Consular procedures outside Russia: consulates may reject applications for a new foreign passport, registration of marriage, or a change of name; legalization of foreign documents; and obtaining personal documents or information. The bill also separately specifies a refusal to process renunciation of citizenship.

The practical effect may be gradual: if a person cannot extend their passport, the document “falls out” of circulation due to expiry, making travel more difficult without any direct confiscation.

Who decides and how the procedure is launched

In the adopted version, the key role is assigned to the Ministry of Justice. It maintains the list of individuals subject to the measures and publishes the relevant information on its official website. The restrictions begin to apply the day after a person is added to the list.

Five agencies can initiate consideration: the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the Federal Bailiff Service, and the Federal Tax Service. At the same time, determining the fact of foreign stay and characterizing behavior as evasion of punishment is assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It is also noted that during the preparation of the law package, powers and role allocation changed. In the early stages (including during discussion at first reading), the Prosecutor General’s Office was expected to have more influence, and there were plans to link it to the formation of the list. Later amendments shifted decision-making and list management to the Ministry of Justice and clarified who exactly may initiate inclusion.

Materials additionally indicated that the measures are expected to come into force on March 1, 2026, while the Federation Council’s budget committee reported that no additional federal spending is required.

Freezing assets and the “special account”

The proposed frozen amounts are to be accumulated on a special ruble account at an authorized bank. The operating conditions for such an account are to be set by the Bank of Russia.

The bill includes a humanitarian safeguard: monthly assistance may be paid to close relatives if they have no independent income. The decision is planned to be made by an interagency commission whose composition is approved by the President via a separate act, and the payment amount will be set by the Government of the Russian Federation after coordination with the central bank.

Protection of creditors’ interests is also explicitly established: if, due to the impossibility of fulfilling obligations by a person included in the list, damage is caused, creditors will be able to seek compensation in court using frozen property, including court costs.

How to remove restrictions and appeal the decision

The grounds for exclusion from the list are specified in the documents. They include:

— reversal of the conviction;

— deferment of sentence execution or release from serving the sentence;

— confirmed actual execution of the sentence;

— return to Russia;

— death.

If a person believes they should be excluded but remains on the list, the bill allows filing a reasoned application with the Ministry of Justice. The agency has 20 working days to respond. If the Ministry refuses, judicial appeal is available.

The package does not set a strict “timer” for the measures. Restrictions remain in place until a ground for removal arises.

How the bill’s authors explained the initiative

The initiative, introduced in December, was linked to the work of lawmakers, including the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Vasily Piskaryov, Alexander Aleshevsky, Mikhail Delyagin, and other elected representatives.

The justification cited data that at the time 10,593 Russian citizens were listed in international wanted records, with most of them abroad. The reasons mentioned included fraud offenses, corruption cases, and allegations related to terrorism and killings.

In the accompanying materials, information from the Prosecutor General’s Office appeared: over 11 months in 2025, foreign states refused extradition for 109 people, compared with 102 refusals in 2024.

In public comments, Vyacheslav Volodin described the scope of individuals more harshly—referring to people, in his view, who are hiding from punishment in other countries and continue to harm Russia. The logic of the statements focused on the principle of the “inevitability” of consequences.

Why it was dubbed a “passport without rights”

The human rights group “First Department” published an analysis of the bill back in December and then updated it during the current month. Lawyers believe that, in practice, the bill creates a mechanism under which a significant portion of rights connected to civil status becomes virtually inaccessible, even though citizenship is formally retained.

In their interpretation, a person who left for political reasons and is recognized as evading punishment receives a kind of status of “internally canceled.” The passport is not confiscated, but renewing it may become difficult due to expiry, and access to a number of procedures may be restricted.

Critics also point to a legal risk: in other practices, full cancellation of citizenship can lead to statelessness. Therefore, according to the critics’ view, this package does not “cancel” citizenship, but “empties” it of functional content.

A related provision has already been signed

Earlier, a related regulation moved through the legislative process. On June 10, the President signed a law expanding the list of administrative offenses for which Russians abroad may be held liable, and also allowing seizure of property as a securing measure. The document will take effect on September 1.

The sources of the initiatives also differed: the administrative block developed from proposals tied to practices in Tatarstan, while the June law grew out of those ideas.

What happens next in the procedure

Under Article 107 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a federal law is sent to the President within five days, and the President must sign and publish it within 14 days. If counting from the Federation Council’s approval date (July 24), the deadline falls in the second week of August, although in practice decisions are often made sooner.

The decisive moment will be the official publication on the legal information portal. It is the publication date that will show from which day the restrictions will be applied by the Ministry of Justice, not the date the information appears on the Kremlin website.

Expert view: why the “list” may work differently than it seems

In practice, mechanisms like this often start to “show up” not at the moment of formal inclusion, but through a chain of related procedures: banks, registration authorities, notaries, and providers of electronic services build internal checks based on lists and associated identifiers. As a result, a person may encounter restrictions in everyday actions even before they notice the direct rule—because counterparties interpret the risk as a default basis for refusal. This increases the legal importance of timely appeals and document-based proof of status (for example, if there are court rulings changing or overturning the decision), since it is through documents that the system can switch from an “evasion” mode to a “ground for removal” mode.

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