By Murad Rakhimov | 2025-02-19

TASHKENT -- The official list of "terrorists" and "extremists" in Russia grew by 3,152 names last year, Verstka reported in December.

Since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Rosfinmonitoring list has quintupled to include more than 16,000 individuals and organizations.

The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service, which is known as Rosfinmonitoring, keeps the list.

This list and the list of so-called foreign agents, which the Ministry of Justice updates every Friday, together make up a key instrument of pressure by Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime against its critics, say analysts.

Those on the list have a hard time finding work and receiving their wages. They may withdraw only 10,000 RUB (€104.60) from their bank accounts per month, and before doing so, they must fill out an application.

Many employers refuse to hire job seekers after learning they are on the Rosfinmonitoring list, Verstka reported.

Who's on the list?

Among those branded as terrorists are Garry Kasparov, a politician and former world chess champion; Ilya Novikov, a lawyer and contestant on the game show "What? Where? When?"; Boris Akunin, one of Russia's most widely read writers; and Tatyana Lazareva, a television presenter.

Moscow has also named as extremists Maria Pevchikh, an investigative journalist, and Artur Smolyaninov and Yana Troyanova, film actors who fled Russia after the full-scale war began.

Another person on the list of terrorists is Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suspiciously in prison last year. Rosfinmonitoring has refused to remove the late Navalny from the blacklist.

But ordinary Russians whom the Kremlin considers heretics far outnumber celebrities on the list. It is perilously easy to end up there, because allegedly spreading "fake news" or "discrediting" the Russian army is grounds for inclusion.

Last year the Kremlin added 187 individuals originally from the partially occupied Ukrainian provinces of Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk to the list.

It also added 161 minors last year. Four of the newly designated "extremists" were 14 years old when the Kremlin added them.

With these actions, the authorities are trying to quash protest sentiment among the youngest Russians, Nikita, 21, a Russian refugee who asked that his last name not be used, said.

The so-called terrorists and extremists "are young, highly active people between 18 and 30 years old. Not everyone can leave the country, and there's a population of young [Russians] who are trying to fight the regime in their own way," Nikita told Kontur.

As long as the war continues, the pacifist sentiment among young Russians will only build, he predicted. And this likelihood is what scares the Kremlin.

'Cooked-up political accusations'

Under the guise of fighting extremism and terrorism, the state is working to protect itself from any dissent, ideological challenge or disagreement with the regime's actions, said "Diliaver," a rights activist from Russia-annexed Crimea who spoke to Kontur under an alias.

The Russian judicial system has merged completely with the intelligence services, he said.

"Say someone goes to visit someone at home, or they gather in a home or at the mosque and discuss politically sensitive issues or read books," Diliaver said to Kontur.

"What they're doing has nothing to do with planning any killings, arson or explosions. But the state seizes them, tries them and throws them in jail for 10, 15 or 20 years as IS ['Islamic State'] terrorists."

"To a great extent we've seen a spike in the number of people who have been put on the list of 'extremists and terrorists,' mainly for cooked-up political accusations," Dmitry Dubrovsky, a social scientist at Charles University in Prague, told Kontur.

The list includes a raft of organizations that exist only in the Federal Security Service (FSB)'s imagination, Dubrovsky said.

In enacting this kind of repression, the regime is not only combating antiwar and anti-Putin statements, but it is also tightening screws on the opposition.

Russians on the list "are those whom the state recognizes at least as potential opinion leaders whose political position is dangerous for the regime," Alexander Kim, an exiled Russian blogger and activist who fights xenophobia and prejudice, told Kontur.

On December 18, 2023, the European Union slapped sanctions on Rosfinmonitoring.

Online repression

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the authorities have been trying to control access to the internet as much as possible and to scrub the media space.

In 2024, Russian authorities blocked more than 417,000 websites. This was a twofold increase from 2023 and a fivefold increase from 2022, Verstka reported in January.

More than 85% of the blocks in 2024 were implemented without any legal rulings. The Federal Taxation Service, the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor and, according to the announcement of the measure, "an unspecified state agency" initiated the blocking of the websites.

The Prosecutor General's Office may be the unnamed agency, say observers.

Russia has also blocked the messaging app Viber and impeded the operation of another instant messaging service, Signal. Officials are discussing the possibility of banning voice calls on messaging apps.

In recent years, Russians have lost access to 98 virtual private networks (VPNs) that could have dodged those blocks.

Blocking is a common method for muzzling Russians now, said Dubrovsky.

"A regime of total military censorship has been instituted in the country. There are a few independent media outlets struggling to survive in Russia now. Everything else is 'living' on relatively uncensored Telegram channels," he said.

"Now the Russian authorities are starting to ban VPNs, and that move also limits options for Russians to get independent information."