Claude users say their accounts were banned after verification showed a Russian passport

Users of the Claude chatbot say Anthropic, the service’s developer, has blocked their accounts after they completed identity verification using Russian documents. The complaints appeared on Reddit, on X, and on Telegram.Users said Claude required them to complete verification through a service called Persona. Why they were asked to do this is unclear. Persona requires users to select the region of their document, upload a photo of it, and complete a facial scan.Users say the ban happens immediately after they upload a Russian passport. The ban is issued even to users who do not live in Russia but lack a residency permit elsewhere.One now-blocked Claude user said on Reddit that he is a Russian citizen living in New Zealand on a four-year visa (unlike Russia, New Zealand appears on Anthropic’s list of countries where Claude is officially available). He said he used the paid version of the chatbot for both work and personal purposes, as well as Claude Code.Anthropic blocked the user’s account immediately after he uploaded his Russian international passport, without explanation. The company had charged his account for a subscription payment two days before the block.In the comments, other users with Russian documents living in Georgia and Armenia described similar problems. A user in Georgia published a letter from Anthropic’s security team, which said he had been banned for violating the chatbot’s usage policy but did not specify what he had violated:Our automated systems detected a large number of signals associated with your account that violate our Usage Policy. These signals were, in turn, reviewed by our team to confirm the system’s findings. As a result, we have revoked your access to Claude.Another user said that after uploading his Russian passport, he was blocked and could no longer send new queries to the chatbot. He could only export his chat data. He was unable to restore his account through an appeal.Users with Chinese citizenship have faced similar checks. China is also not on the list of countries where Claude is officially available, though some users with Chinese passports have managed to pass verification successfully.In early October, it was also reported that users from regions not supported by Claude, including Russia, who were bypassing the restrictions with a VPN, had faced blocks.What exactly is driving the current blocks remains unclear. Anthropic has not commented on the complaints. Claude itself said it cannot verify the authenticity of users’ posts.The company’s policy does not mention restrictions based on nationality or citizenship. It lists the countries and regions where Anthropic’s products are officially supported. In countries not on the list, the products are “not supported,” meaning people in those countries or regions cannot use the company’s services.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.