Russia strips rights of citizens abroad in sweeping new 'traitor' law

By Irina Aleksandrova Published on 23/07/2026 - 10:28 GMT+2•Updated 10:29 Russia's parliament passed a law on Wednesday that will strip the property rights, bank accounts and consular services of Russians living abroad who face prosecution at home on political grounds, in measures lawyers say amount to the de facto revocation of citizenship. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The State Duma approved the bill in its second and third readings simultaneously. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin made no effort to obscure who the law was aimed at. "We are talking about those who harm our country," he said before the vote. "About extremists, traitors to our homeland. Those who for years have tried to do everything to destroy our state. Who justify Nazism and insult our soldiers and officers, while hiding from punishment in other states." Under the legislation, Russians living abroad who are evading criminal prosecution at home will face a sweeping set of restrictions inside Russia: bank accounts will be frozen, property and vehicles cannot be sold, licences and accreditations will be suspended, banking app access will be blocked, and state and consular services — including the right to obtain an international passport or have documents such as wills and powers of attorney certified — will be refused. The law also applies to Russians who have already been sanctioned administratively for violations of Russia's foreign agents law, for calling for sanctions against Russia, for calls to violate Russian territorial integrity, for discrediting the armed forces, or for involvement in organisations Russia has designated as undesirable. The law takes effect upon official publication with no transition period. Tightening the screws Wednesday's legislation is the latest in a sustained expansion of Russia's legal toolkit for suppressing dissent that began before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine but has dramatically accelerated since February 2022. In the first week of the full-scale invasion, the State Duma passed two key laws within days of each other. The first criminalised the spread of what the state deems "knowingly false information" about the armed forces, carrying a sentence of up to 15 years. The second made "discrediting" the army a criminal offence, with penalties rising to five years for first-time offenders. Russia's communications regulator simultaneously ordered media outlets to stop using the words "war," "invasion" or "assault," a directive that prompted the closure or self-imposed suspension of most remaining independent Russian media. Russia's foreign agents law, originally passed in 2012, has been repeatedly amended since 2022 to allow authorities to designate individuals, not just organisations, as foreign agents, which carries wide-ranging restrictions on public life, banking and travel. Russian authorities had blocked more than 25,000 websites by mid-2025, a figure that represents only a fraction of the total content removed since February 2022. Estimates of the number of Russians who left the country in the first year after the full-scale invasion range from 500,000 to over 1 million. Wednesday's law is designed to extend the state's reach into that population. 'De facto loss of citizenship' Lawyers from the First Department, an open community of Russian legal professionals and human rights defenders, said the cumulative effect amounted to "de facto deprivation of citizenship." "A person who left for political reasons and has been recognised as 'evading' acquires the status of an internally 'cancelled citizen'," the group said in an analysis. "Everything connected with the Russian Federation — property, accounts, business, consular services — can be used against them, while they themselves are practically deprived of any opportunity to use this in their own interests," it added. Independent human rights media project OVD-Info said those at greatest risk included people on Russia's foreign agents register, defendants in criminal or politically motivated administrative cases, political activists, journalists, lawyers, and participants in projects or organisations that the Kremlin has labelled as "extremist," "undesirable," or "terrorist". From the full-scale invasion in 2022 to September 2025, at least 692 people faced criminal prosecution under the "false information" and "discreditation" laws alone, according to OVD-Info. In total, at least 1,299 people had faced criminal prosecution for opposing the war by late 2025, with 373 still imprisoned.