Russia's Justice Ministry has populated a public register of citizens living outside the country who are subject to temporary restrictions under Russian law. The list published on October 23 contains 12 people, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Ekaterina Shulman, Yevgeny Chichvarkin and Boris Zimin. Important Stories reported on the entries after examining the ministry's register.
The ministry had previously outlined plans for the mechanism and announced the register's creation. The new development was the appearance of actual entries naming specific people. Inclusion can entail restrictions on rights provided for under Russian law, including in areas such as property transactions and access to certain services.
The register was launched amid an expansion of Russian state measures targeting critics of the war and opposition figures who have left the country. It is not the same as the register of “foreign agents”: the criteria for inclusion and legal consequences differ between the two lists.
The grounds for imposing measures on any given individual must be assessed against the applicable documents and individual decisions. A name appearing on the list is not proof of wrongdoing, and the published register may change.