In the fall, law enforcement officers in Kazakhstan repeatedly detained Evgeniya Baltatarova, a journalist from Russia’s Buryat region, who was placed on a wanted list by Moscow for disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army. Her detention was explained by authorities as complying with the Minsk Convention, a cooperation agreement between several members of the Commonwealth of Independent States that has facilitated the detention and extradition of individuals wanted by governments in Eurasia.6 Late in the year, authorities in Kazakhstan deported Mikhail Zhilin, an officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) who had fled military conscription, because his name appeared on a wanted list for “desertion.” 7 He was deported after his claim to asylum was denied but before his lawyers had exhausted legal appeals in an act that the lawyers argued contravened the protections afforded by the United Nations Refugee Convention and Protocol (“Refugee Convention”). Zhilin now faces a lengthy prison sentence in Russia. People fleeing forced military service in the Russian army may face obstacles applying for asylum in nearby European countries as well. In September, representatives of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania indicated that Russian citizens hoping to escape mobilization would be unlikely to receive a humanitarian visa or be considered for political asylum.8 The inability to obtain protected legal status in these countries will make Russians more vulnerable to transnational repression. Against the backdrop of the war of aggression and intensifying repression at home, Moscow continued to facilitate the targeting by fellow authoritarian governments of exiles living in Russia. The government of Tajikistan used long-established practices of security cooperation with Moscow to undertake an extensive campaign of transnational repression, which accounted for 27 percent of global incidents recorded last year. The government of Tajikistan used long-established practices of security cooperation with Moscow to undertake an extensive campaign of transnational repression. Members of the Pamiri diaspora, an ethnic group from Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), bore the brunt of their government’s cross-border targeting, which followed a crackdown on protests in the region.9 Eleven citizens of Tajikistan were returned from Russia via rendition and unlawful deportation in 2022. These included individuals who had obtained Russian citizenship, including Oraz and Ramzi Vazirbekov, who vocally opposed Dushanbe’s “antiterror” campaign in GBAO and disappeared from a Moscow airport in January. In November, they were sentenced in Tajikistan to 16 and 13 years in prison, respectively, on charges related to calling for the overthrow of the government.10 Another victim, Amriddin Alovatshoev, an activist for migrant rights who had participated in protests outside the Tajikistani embassy in Moscow, was returned to Tajikistan in February. He made a televised confession and was eventually sentenced to 18 years in prison for hostage taking.11 Millions of people from Central Asia live in Russia. As many as 174,000 Tajikistani citizens obtained Russian citizenship last year alone.12 Moscow’s readiness to enable transnational repression committed by neighboring autocrats puts many of these individuals in serious peril. The Russian government’s decision to withdraw from the Council of Europe in anticipation of being expelled after its invasion of Ukraine adds a new dimension to the threat faced by exiles living there. Now outside the purview of the European Court of Human Rights, individuals subjected to transnational repression in Russia will not be able to appeal to the body for protective measures against unlawful deportation.13 Lastly, Russia’s attack on Ukraine unsettled the existing security arrangements in Europe, providing an opportunity for Turkey to try to expand its already extensive campaign of transnational repression. Since the July 2016 coup attempt against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ankara has relentlessly pursued exiles associated with the Gülen and Kurdish movements.14 Freedom House’s Transnational Repression database includes 132 incidents perpetrated by Turkish authorities. In September, a businessman named Uğur Demirok became the latest victim of the world’s most brazen campaign of renditions when Turkey’s intelligence agency kidnapped him from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. After Sweden and Finland applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in May, Turkey refused to support their applications unless Sweden handed over a set of wanted individuals, including several journalists. So far, Sweden’s authorities have refused to violate rule-of-law protections for asylum seekers, but Turkey is still attempting to leverage NATO accession for extraditions. In the meantime, people living in Europe who are being sought by Turkey for return continue to experience intimidation and assault.15 @freedomhouse 3