“We have several examples of people who got eight years in prison when they crossed the [Russian] border,” says Andrei Pivovarov, from Russia’s exiled opposition Anti-War Committee.
And deportations are going down from Europe too. His organisation has modified its advice to dissidents escaping Russia: the EU is no longer secure, it is higher to search refuge elsewhere.
Germany has sharply elevated the quantity of Russian nationals it deports. Seven were despatched back in 2023, rising to more than 110 in 2025, according to German authorities figures. More than 21,000 Russians sought asylum in Germany between 2022 and 2025, but the proportion of optimistic selections fell from 29% in 2023 to just 6.8% in the first eleven months of 2025.
“Protection is only granted if there is an actual, well-founded fear of persecution,” Germany’s migration and asylum company, BAMF, instructed the BBC.
Last 12 months, Berlin suspended its humanitarian visa programme for Russians, and across the EU, the proportion of Russian candidates granted some kind of asylum safety fell from 23% in 2024 to around 17% in the first 9 months of 2025, according to EU knowledge.
Russian opposition activists fleeing repression have become caught up in a wider crackdown on immigration, as governments across Europe and the US toughen guidelines amid political strain over high numbers of irregular migrants and asylum purposes, as effectively as over security considerations.
Western governments are “focused on limiting humanitarian programmes and asylum seekers”, says lawyer Anastasia Burakova, founder of rights group Kovcheg (Ark), which helps anti-war Russians go away the nation. The clampdown is “in response to public concerns and rising support for right-wing populist parties”, she provides.
Following a destructive asylum resolution, Russian nationals are typically given the probability to go away independently, but a rising quantity are being forcibly returned to Russia, normally escorted via third nations.
Several Russian activists in exile instructed the BBC that immigration officers had instructed them they confronted “no danger” in Russia, and that officers typically lacked an ample understanding of the dangers that activists face.
“I tried to explain that if they sent me back, I would be put in prison, or sent to war where I’d be killed,” explains former soldier Artyom, who abandoned from the Russian Army in 2022 after officers threatened to ship him to Ukraine. “They just didn’t believe me.”
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