Russian watchdog adds over 3,000 people to list of terrorists and extremists in 2024

Russia’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring added 3,165 individuals to its list of terrorists and extremists in 2024, almost twice as many as it did the previous year, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

Of the 3,165 new additions last year, 2,248 were deemed to have been involved in terrorism, while 917 were added for being extremists, according to Rosfinmonitoring, which monitors the financing of terrorism and money laundering.

The figure also marks an 86% increase on 2023, when some 1,700 individuals were placed on the list, according to state-affiliated news outlet Gazeta.ru. In 2022, there were around 1,600 additions to the list.

Anyone accused of terrorism or extremism in Russia, even if they were acquitted, has their name added to the list, meaning that they are almost totally shut out from making financial transactions, as well as barred by law from buying or selling property or receiving an inheritance. Anybody whose name is added to the list also has their assets and bank accounts frozen and their bank cards blocked.

Among the public figures that have recently been added to the list is opposition politician Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny, theatre director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, both of whom are currently serving prison sentences after being convicted of justifying terrorism with their play about Russian ISIS brides, and journalist Leonid Gozman, a former contributor to Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Once on the list, it is extremely difficult for somebody to be removed from it. Either the criminal case against the defendant has to be dropped or their sentence quashed, or the individual in question must wait for their criminal record to be expunged.