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Exiled and erased: Russian activists stripped of ID Cards
Several Russian activists and opposition figures who have fled Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have reported that their Russian internal passports (which serve as national ID cards) have been canceled or declared invalid by the Russian authorities.
The first cases were reported by Daniil Chebykin and Richard King, co-founders of the Omsk Civic Association, an organization that protested the war in Ukraine and fought corruption. After they left Russia, they found that their ID cards had been revoked, likely due to their activist work being classified as «extremist» by the Russian government.
Another activist, Olesya Krivtsova from Arkhangelsk, also discovered her ID card had been invalidated when she tried to apply for a new passport at the Russian consulate in Norway, where she had fled to. She is wanted in Russia for «discrediting the armed forces» and «justifying terrorism.»
Lawyers say the Russian authorities typically cite vague reasons like «false information» in the documents to justify canceling the ID cards. This effectively leaves the exiles without valid identification, making it impossible for them to conduct basic transactions or access government services in Russia.
Experts believe this practice of revoking ID cards is not yet systematic, but is…
