Kremlin moves to silence Russia war critics in Central Asia
For Lev Skoryakin, a fugitive Russian political activist on the Kremlin’s wanted list for staging anti-government protests, luck ran out in June 2023.
Having fled to Kyrgyzstan the previous summer, he managed to keep a low profile for more than a year before Kyrgyz authorities, acting on a Russian government request, found him in the capital, Bishkek. In October of that year, they extradited him to Russia.
Skoryakin, who emigrated to Germany early this year after spending three months in a Russian prison, told VOA that Kyrgyz authorities figured out where he was by using a novel facial recognition system, which they launched in June 2023 with the help of the Russian government.
“Russian emigre dissidents [in Central Asia] should be really vigilant, and they should follow basic safety rules. … The facial recognition system is still operating in Bishkek,” Skoryakin said.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry reported in January that the system had facilitated the arrests of more than 800 people through the end of last year, mostly common criminals, including more than 100 who were put on the international wanted list by Interpol.
Since 2022, scores of Russian anti-war activists such as Skoryakin have fled political repression in Russia and found temporary refuge in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. But after a series of arrests, abductions and extraditions, these dissidents are no longer safe in those countries.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, there was an exodus from Russia of mainly conscription-age men. According to regional media reports, approximately 400,000 Russian citizens arrived in Kazakhstan in 2022 and around 445,000 Russian citizens went to Kyrgyzstan.
Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, such as Skoryakin, saw these countries as transit points on the way to exile in the West. While he was in Kyrgyzstan, Skoryakin applied for a temporary travel document to allow him to emigrate to Germany.
Kyrgyz authorities initially welcomed the Russian dissidents. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in an October 2022 New York Times interview, “We don’t see any harm; on the contrary, we see more benefits” from Russian immigrants.
Moscow had a different view. Since 2022, the Kremlin has used a range of measures to force Kazakh and Kyrgyz governments to act against Russian dissidents, including arrests and the banning of public protests against Russia.
Russia also relied on extradition treaties with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to silence its critics. Acting on Russia’s request, between 2022 and 2024, Kazakhstan arrested at least seven Russian dissidents.
Kyrgyz media reported on four arrests of anti-Kremlin activists in Kyrgyzstan, all of whom have been handed over to Russian authorities.
According to Kazakh media, the extradition cases against the Russian dissidents in that country are still pending a final resolution.
The Kremlin has also encouraged Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to reveal information about Russian activists. In June 2023, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan signed an agreement on sharing “information on the residence status, citizenship, migration registration, visas, property, criminal records and identity documents of individuals living within their borders.”
As part of the agreement, Russia reportedly provided data about 85,000 Russian citizens to the Kyrgyz authorities. According to Kyrgyz media, Kyrgyzstan used this data for its facial recognition system, which helped identify and arrest four Russian dissidents, including Skoryakin, shortly after the data-sharing agreement was signed in June 2023.
Zhanar Akaev, the chair of the parliamentary committee in charge of international affairs, has said Russian security services are exerting pressure on Kyrgyzstan.
“Political immigrants from Russia should avoid coming [to Kyrgyzstan]. This is because Russian security services have strong influence. If they will ask, our security agencies will not say no. As far as I know, the FSB [Russia’s Federal Security Service] works freely here,” he said.
In Kyrgyzstan, Akaev is part of a handful of Kyrgyz political activists who are publicly critical of the Kyrgyz government. International human rights watchdogs indicate that Kyrgyz authorities have become increasingly intolerant of political dissent and have silenced most government critics.
A Kyrgyzstani human rights activist, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity for fear of official retribution, said that “criticizing the treatment of Russian dissidents” can land human rights defenders in trouble with the Kyrgyz government.
“In return for getting the Russian [dissidents],” the activist said, “Moscow handed over Kyrgyz activists in Russia who were critical of the Kyrgyz government.”
The Russian government action against Russian dissidents in Central Asia has paid off.
As of early 2024, Rapid Response Unit, a nonprofit organization that assisted hundreds of Russian dissidents to flee from Russia, stopped sending people to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
In an August 2023 interview with Kazakh journalists, Evgenii Zhovtis, a Kazakhstani human rights defender, said that most of the arrested Russian activists were in legal limbo in Kazakhstan.
“There are no legal grounds to prosecute them, but letting them out of the country is also difficult. Their identification documents are about to expire. To obtain new documents, they need to go to the [Russian] consulate,” Zhovtis said.
With anti-Kremlin activists in Central Asia silenced, the Russian government is shifting its focus to unfriendly Central Asian nongovernmental organizations.
Addressing a Russian government meeting in February, former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, “Against the backdrop of the special military operation [against Ukraine], these NGOs significantly increased their anti-Russian activities in order to reduce military-technical, economic and cultural cooperation between the Central Asian states and the Russian Federation.”
He added that that Russia needs to take “special preventive measures” against such NGOs.
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