Nowhere to Run

Over the past few months, several Russian activists, military deserters, and anti-government voices have been extradited from Kazakhstan, or now find themselves facing that fate.These are the stories of Zelimkhan Murtazov, Yulia Yemelyanova, Mansur Movlayev, Semyon Bazhukov, and Alexander Kachkurkin, five such Russian citizens caught on the wrong side of the two countries’ close legal cooperation.Perhaps nobody else in the world has ever found themselves in quite the position that Zelimkhan Murtazov has been in for the last 103 days.On the run from the Russian government, Zelimkhan is stuck in a transit zone of Astana International Airport, Kazakhstan’s capital, unable to enter the country, where he wishes to request political asylum.Instead, he now faces deportation to Russia, which he says would result in certain imprisonment, likely torture, and possible death.The Chechen deserter, 37, previously served for two years in the Russian army and fought in Ukraine.In 2024, after fleeing military service, he traveled to Kazakhstan, one of four countries that have open borders for Russian citizens without international travel documents.Following an abortive effort to travel onwards to Turkey, where he says he was stripped of his ID card, Zelimkhan was sent back to Astana.There, border security guards denied him re-entry to Kazakhstan on “national security grounds.” Since then, he has spent over three months in limbo in Astana’s airport, surviving off charitable donations from supporters around the world.Photo courtesy of Zelimkhan Murtazov.Zelimkhan’s story — while reminiscent of Tom Hanks’ fictitious one in The Terminal — reveals an important fact: Russian citizens trying to escape politically-motivated prosecution at home will find no safe haven in Kazakhstan.In the best-case scenario, they can stay in Kazakhstan so long as they keep a low profile, uneasily building a home for themselves while unable to safely travel to third countries.In the worst-case, individuals are detained by Kazakhstan’s authorities and subjected to extradition proceedings that experts say do not always comply with due process guarantees, before being returned to Russia to face consequences unknown.Moscow Calling Like Zelimkhan’s, the story of another Russian citizen facing deportation and politically motivated imprisonment back at home also begins at an airport.Last August, a Russian activist named Yulia Yemelyanova had a layover in Almaty International Airport while flying from Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, to the coastal Vietnamese city of Da Nang.When her flight landed, the 34-year-old was forced to leave the transfer hall to re-check her luggage, despite having been initially told that her bags would travel directly through to her final destination, according to her lawyer.As Yulia entered customs, what might have otherwise been an inconvenience began to look more sinister.The activist was detained by Kazakhstani border security and transferred to a temporary holding center, after which local law enforcement said that they would make immediate preparations for her extradition to Russia.The reason for Yulia’s detention soon became clear: Russian authorities had placed her on an international wanted list for the alleged theft of a telephone worth 12,000 rubles (about $150) from a taxi driver back in St.Petersburg, almost four years prior.Yulia Yemelyanova.Photo courtesy of Murat Adam.Yulia had been on the authorities’ radar in her home country for some time, but her detention in Almaty marked a new chapter in her long-standing legal entanglement with Russian law enforcement.According to Russian human rights organizations, Yulia had actively participated in anti-government rallies in 2017 and had volunteered in St.Petersburg for the Navalny Headquarters, an activist group that organized protests, election monitoring, and anti-corruption advocacy in support of former opposition leader Alexey Navalny prior to being banned as “extremist” in 2021.That same year, in September, police in St.Petersburg raided the activist’s home and rushed her to a nearby station while she was still in her nightgown.There, investigators presented her with a telephone that they claimed she had stolen, though she says it was the first time she had seen it.According to both the Russian Antiwar Committee, a coalition of exiled Russian opposition figures and activists, and The Ark, a project supporting Russian emigrants who oppose the war in Ukraine, the Russian authorities’ case against Yulia was likely “politically motivated” and “fabricated.” Highlighting several procedural flaws — including the fact that the case was first opened a month after the alleged crime was committed — Yulia’s lawyer, Murat Adam, agreed: “I’m certain that the charges were falsified.The victim himself, an immigrant from Tajikistan, was deported.It’s clear that [Russian authorities] pressured him, told him to do this and that, write a statement, and then they deported him so it would be impossible to find him,” Adam told Vlast.