By Ekaterina Janashia | 2026-03-05

Moscow wants to know where Russians emigrants are. All 30 million of them.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is moving to tighten its grip on the country's vast diaspora, proposing a new law that would make it a criminal offense for Russians living abroad to fail to report a foreign citizenship or residency permit to local consulates.

The draft legislation, discovered by the independent outlet Verstka on a government portal for regulatory acts, marks a significant shift in how the Russian state monitors its citizens overseas. A public consultation on the bill closed on February 27, and the proposal now awaits submission to the State Duma.

The bill does not exist in isolation. It fits into a broader tightening of state control over Russians abroad. The State Duma's Commission for Foreign Interference, chaired by Vasily Piskarev, has advanced proposals to freeze assets, restrict property transactions, block remote banking access and deny certain state services to citizens accused of political offenses or labeled "foreign agents." Together, the initiatives point to a growing effort to raise the legal and financial risks of remaining outside Russia's jurisdiction.

Ending the 'grace period' for emigrants

Under current Russian law, citizens who acquire a second nationality or a residence permit in another country are required to notify the Ministry of Internal Affairs within 60 days. However, those physically located outside Russia currently have an exemption: they only need to file the notification within 60 days of their next entry into the Russian Federation.

For the hundreds of thousands who have fled the country since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and have no plans to return, this has effectively meant they could keep their foreign status secret from the Kremlin indefinitely.

The new proposal seeks to close that gap. It mandates that notification become obligatory within 60 days of receiving the foreign document, regardless of where the person is located. The notification must be made either via the Gosuslugi portal or directly to a Russian consulate abroad. Failure to comply would trigger Article 330.2 of the Russian Criminal Code.

Penalties are severe: fines of up to 200,000 RUB ($2,150), a fine equal to the perpetrator's annual income, or up to 400 hours of compulsory labor.

The scale of the Kremlin's ambition is visible in a single number. An estimated 30 million Russians live abroad. Only 2.2 million are currently registered at consulates -- a gap the Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes as "not up to date." Closing it is, ostensibly, the point of the bill.

"All of this is very deeply troubling to me, of course. I left Russia shortly after the start of the full-scale war; you could say I fled," Denis, 32, of Saint Petersburg, who now lives in Germany, told Kontur. "My parents, sister, and nephews are still there."

He believes that if the law passes, the act of registering with the consulate is not what frightens him most.

"I'm afraid of the likely consequences of that registration: that my family might suffer for it, or that people like me will eventually be stripped of the right to own property or hold bank accounts in Russia," Denis said. "I worry that a simple trip to visit my relatives could end with the authorities coming for me, accusing me of anything -- even espionage."

Tracking the 'constant resident'

The bill also introduces a new legal category: the "citizen permanently residing outside the Russian Federation."

According to legal experts interviewed by Verstka, the definition is sweeping. It covers any Russian citizen who holds a foreign passport, a residence permit, a temporary residence permit, or even long-term national visas -- and who has spent more than 183 days outside Russia within a 12-month period.

Anastasia Burakova, a human rights lawyer and founder of the Ark (Kovcheg) project, noted that while the current draft explicitly mentions citizenship and residency permits, the language regarding "other documents" is broad.

"The obligation to notify could easily be extended to temporary residence permits and Type D visas," Burakova told Verstka.

The act of notifying a consulate will trigger automatic registration on the consular records -- effectively creating a centralized, real-time database of the Russian diaspora. Critics say it is designed for surveillance, not service.

"The law might not be about that on the surface, but it paves the way for further repressive legislation," Denis said. "They could act without any law at all once they have a formal record that someone holds a residence permit in a European country."

The refugee trap

One of the most legally fraught dimensions of the proposal involves Russians who have sought political asylum or refugee status abroad.

Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which Russia is a signatory, refugees are generally prohibited from contacting the authorities of the country from which they fled -- doing so can be grounds for revoking their protected status. The bill would effectively force political asylum seekers in Europe into an impossible choice: violate international refugee law by registering with Russian consulates, or face criminal prosecution under Russian law for failing to do so.

Burakova acknowledges the bill's language is broad enough to theoretically cover refugees, but says requiring their direct contact with Russian authorities would be a flagrant violation of international protocol.

"Refugees and asylum seekers should not contact the government agencies of the country they fled," she told Verstka.

The official justification

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs argues the measure is a matter of administrative necessity, needed to plan elections, referendums and emergency evacuations. Burakova dismisses these justifications as "in the spirit of the times."

"I am sure that if the bill moves forward, we will hear talk about 'dangerous NATO countries' where Russians must be protected by registering everyone at the consulate," Burakova said.

"In reality, consulates are usually very cold toward the problems of Russians abroad when it actually comes to helping. But counting emigrants and tracking them under this pretext is something they will do with great pleasure."

If adopted in its current form, the law is slated to take effect on January 1, 2028. Russians who already hold foreign residency or citizenship but have not notified the authorities would be given a one-year transition period -- required to report their status to a consulate by January 1, 2029, or face criminal prosecution.