How Russia targets its critics abroad in wartime

The Naked Pravda

The Russian government has a message for its citizens living in exile: nowhere is safe for you. For years, it’s made this threat clear by subjecting its critics abroad to intimidation, forced repatriation, and assassination attempts. And just as the Kremlin has taken increasingly draconian measures to silence dissent at home since launching the full-scale war in Ukraine, it’s also devised new tactics for targeting activists, journalists, and politicians far beyond its borders. For insight into how Moscow’s approach to transnational repression has changed over the last two years, The Naked Pravda turned to journalist and activist Dan Storyev, who serves as the managing editor of OVD-Info’s English-language edition, and Yana Gorokhovskaia, the research director for strategy and design at Freedom House.

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Timestamps for this episode

• (10:22) Case study: An abduction in Kyrgyzstan
• (16:40) The goal of Moscow’s repressions abroad
• (20:10) How countries unwittingly “work hand-in-hand with the Kremlin”
• (23:41) How the Kremlin’s tactics have changed since 2022
• (28:29) How Russia takes advantage of the Interpol system to repatriate citizens
• (34:18) Transnational repression by Belarus

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