Newsletters / Mikhail Khodorkovsky: the standstill over documents and bank accounts for antiwar Russians has been resolved

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

the standstill over documents and bank accounts for antiwar Russians has been resolved.

Yes, this is only the first step. There is still work ahead with national authorities, who will have to implement these decisions. Yes, it will be slow, procedural, and tedious. But it will happen. The ice has broken. We did it.

On June 16, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on countering “transnational repression” targeting journalists, human rights defenders, and activists in exile. Lawmakers named Russia as one of the main perpetrators and called for shielding political exiles from frozen bank accounts, denial of consular services, and passport revocations. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a similar resolution on June 25, with input from the platform for dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces.

Putin’s regime has a quiet way to punish the Russians who fled it. It cancels their passports, freezes their accounts, and turns Interpol against them. Last week the EU named this for what it is.

The Kremlin does not only jail people inside Russia but reaches across borders to punish the Russians who left. For those who settled in Europe, the punishment is bureaucratic: cancelled passports, frozen bank accounts, and the misuse of Interpol against them

(I personally have been declared a terrorist!).

These are deliberate instruments of political persecution. Without valid documents a person cannot sign a lease, hold a legal job, open bank account, travel, or study.

When our platform for anti-war Russians began its work at the Council of Europe, many people asked what it was even for.

I wanted to fix two things in my term: documents and bank accounts for the Russians the regime is trying to keep under its thumb even after they’ve left.

I assumed it would take at least a year just to move this off dead center. In reality, it took six months: last week the European Parliament adopted a resolution on countering transnational repression, put forward by Hannah Neumann. Our team joined the work and added provisions of our own.

The text commits the EU to two concrete things:

First, the Commission and Member States must guarantee people at risk of repression access to basic banking services.

Second, the Commission must find a way to issue documents to those who cannot get them from their consulates.

Out of bureaucratic language, the meaning is plain. The EU, at its highest level, says anti-war Russians in danger from Putin’s regime must not be left without documents or a bank accounts.

As PACE president Petra Bayr said: “A passport is more than a document — it’s access to freedom, work, travel, and participation in society. Today, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted a report on countering transnational repression and exploring solutions for people denied valid documents by authoritarian regimes, including Belarus and Russia.
A modern answer to the spirit of the historic Nansen passport could help protect those forced into exile and ensure they are not left without rights or identity.”

I recognise that it’s just the first step and national governments still have to turn these words into real procedures, and that will be slow and tedious. But the direction is now fixed on paper, and it’s pointing in the right direction.

At the Brussels Dialogue I named four fronts for the Putin’s opposition and Europe:

• Kremlin hybrid threats
• Talent visas for Russians who won’t serve the war
• Protection from transnational repression
• Realistic scenarios for a Russia after Putin

My core argument is the same: Europe should stop treating support for Russia’s democratic forces as charity and start treating it as an investment in its own security. Putin’s regime threatens not just Ukraine and not just Russians but the entire European order.

The people who fight for a peaceful, lawful, democratic Russia are Europe’s natural allies. What this partnership needs now is not occasional contact but a standing mechanism: regular dialogue with the European Parliament and shared work where our interests already meet.

Putin counts on Western institutions being too slow and too cautious to effectively counter it. He must be proven wrong.