Draft: not yet checked by a lawyerThe guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.
Draft What human rights defenders advise
I am on the Rosfinmonitoring list
First: check whether you are on the list on the Rosfinmonitoring website (the link is under 'Am I on a list?'; from abroad the site often does not open) and keep banks' written replies and copies of case documents. The list of 'terrorists and extremists' is not a verdict or a court ruling that you are a terrorist. Being a suspect or accused under an 'extremist' or 'terrorist' article is enough to be added; since mid-2025 this includes 'discrediting' the army (art. 280.3 CC; Law 115-FZ, art. 6, para 2.1).
Money in Russia. Banks freeze accounts. You can receive and spend pensions, student grants and benefits without a limit, and pay taxes and fines. You can receive a salary and other income, but spend it only up to the minimum wage per month for yourself and each family member who lives with you and has no income of their own: 27,093 roubles per person in 2026. If a listed person is on the wanted list, since June 2026 banks also suspend these operations, except taxes and fines.
How people find out. Many learn they are on the list when a bank blocks a card or refuses a transaction. According to First Line, people on the list find it hard to get work. According to the UN special rapporteur, by mid-2026 the list had 21,541 people, at least 5,063 of them persecuted for political reasons.
Getting off the list. By law you are removed if the criminal case or prosecution is dropped, the conviction is overturned with rehabilitation, or the conviction is spent or lifted (art. 6 pt 2.2 of Law 115-FZ). If there are grounds but you were not removed, or you were listed by mistake, you can send a written application to Rosfinmonitoring. It is reviewed within 10 working days, and a refusal can be challenged in court (pt 2.3). In practice, according to First Department (a 'foreign agent'), the procedure is vague and removal drags on. It is better to prepare the application with a lawyer.
Abroad. Data from the list flows automatically into the customer screening databases LSEG World-Check, LexisNexis and Dow Jones, and from there to Western banks. That is why banks in Europe and America ask for documents or close accounts without any evidence of a link to terrorism. This is reported by the Carnegie Endowment ('undesirable organisation' in Russia, November 2025) and UN special rapporteur Mariana Katzarova (report A/HRC/63/60, September 2026).
What to do abroad. Keep documents showing the political nature of the case to hand. You can ask World-Check free of charge whether you are in its database and request that the entry be corrected or supplemented. This does not always help, so it is better to act with a lawyer.
Family and namesakes. Being related is not grounds for listing, but First Line says relatives are refused jobs and study places too. First Department considers transfers to listed people not yet a crime. But if the person is prosecuted under a 'terrorist' article, following a Constitutional Court ruling a transfer can count as terrorist financing if you knew what the money was for. Decide with a lawyer how to help with money. On 23 September 2026 Meduza ('undesirable' in Russia) reported a draft law that would let banks halt namesakes' operations.
Flat and car. The freeze covers more than money: any transaction with property is banned. Rosreestr suspends registration until you are removed from the list, and the law provides no separate Rosfinmonitoring permission for such deals. The law does not stop you living in your flat. Renting it out is not expressly banned, but you cannot spend the rent. A mortgage taken out before you were listed can be paid, but the bank holds each payment for up to 5 working days.
Family and inheritance. Relatives' property is not frozen, but a court can halt operations of people acting on your behalf. You can accept an inheritance, but you cannot register a flat until you are delisted. This is different from arrest in a criminal case, which is a separate court decision (see the memo 'My flat or accounts were arrested').
You can also spend above the limit and pay debts that existed before you were listed, but only through the bank: it holds each such payment for 5 working days and reports it to Rosfinmonitoring. If the agency does not extend the hold, the bank makes the payment; the law does not require separate permission.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur, the share of politically motivated additions to the list rose from 9% before February 2022 to 41% in 2024.
Free, anonymous psychological support for people affected by, or afraid of, political persecution and for their families; an information line and safety guides.
Psychological help is in a separate bot, @PsyFirstlineBot: free, anonymous, one-off chat sessions with trained volunteer psychologists, 18+, no diagnoses or medication. Confidentiality is broken if there is a risk of suicide or a threat to a child.
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