The U.S. is sending Russian asylum seekers back to the country persecuting them

Meduza spoke with an activist trying to save them from deportation

In early December, a plane carrying 64 Russians deported from the United States landed in Moscow. All of them had sought political asylum in the U.S., saying they faced persecution at home. After landing, the men were handed military summonses, and some were taken away for questioning. It was at least the third such flight this year, and more are expected in 2026. Meduza spoke with Dmitry Valuev, president of Russian America for Democracy in Russia, about life in U.S. immigration detention, what awaits deportees back home, and why the U.S. is sending people to the very place they were fleeing.

— To start, tell us a bit about yourself. What do you do, and when did you create Russian America for Democracy in Russia?

— My background is in engineering and economics. I worked in the IT industry in both Russia and the United States. I’ve been involved in Russia’s protest movement since the early 2000s. My wife and I moved to the U.S. as students just a couple of months before the white ribbon protests. When those began, we helped organize demonstrations synchronized with the ones in Moscow, and we kept at it after moving to Washington in 2012. We organized protests and memorial events, pushed for the Magnitsky Act in the U.S. Congress, and advocated for sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, together with other protest organizers in U.S. cities, we launched Russian America for Democracy in Russia. I’m now its president.

Our work focuses on strengthening and expanding pro-democracy communities [among Russians in the U.S.]. Since 2022, we’ve been working with anti-war Russians here and trying to broaden our presence across the country. We also raise funds for Ukraine and for political prisoners in Russia, to whom we regularly write letters.

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Our main tool is online crowdfunding. Everything we collect goes entirely to the stated causes — with no administrative or operating costs. Since 2022, our Freedom Birds for Ukraine project has raised about half a million dollars. Like many nonprofits, we also look for grants and private funding, but that’s difficult for grassroots groups without well-known public figures. Since 2024, we’ve also been assisting Russians held in immigration detention — something that wasn’t a problem before. For that project, we’ve put together a working group of about 30 volunteers: translators, coordinators, case managers, and others.

— Why did this problem emerge already in 2024, before Donald Trump’s presidency?

— It stems from a targeted decision by the Biden administration to more strictly vet the cases of Russians and citizens of several other post-Soviet countries — we know for sure this includes Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova. The reason is that border and immigration officers were not able to reliably distinguish genuine asylum seekers from Russian spies. There were several incidents at the border where FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] officers tried to cross while posing as refugees. And [in June 2024], several Tajikistan-born Russian citizens were detained at the border; they were linked to ISIS.

I don’t think we should expect any easing of these measures under a Trump presidency. This is a deliberate policy of tightening controls, so the situation is likely to change only for the worse. […] Refugees from many countries are facing this pressure. This year, three or four special deportation flights were sent from the U.S. to Russia, while to Venezuela, by comparison, there were 75.

— How many flights from the U.S. to Moscow have there been this year?

— We know of three for certain. There’s information about a fourth flight in September, but we weren’t able to track it, and none of the people we work with in detention reported it.

There have also been other deportations that didn’t involve chartered flights. Russians were removed on regular commercial flights, and the number of people on those flights is much smaller — from a single individual to several families.

Such deportations took place under the Biden administration as well — what’s “new” or “innovative” under Trump is that he began organizing large-scale deportations on charter planes carrying 50–60 people, made up entirely of Russians.

While commercial flights to Moscow may route through Morocco, Qatar, or China, all of the charter flights go through Egypt, where deportees are transferred under guard to a connecting flight to Moscow. This is very different from standard deportations, in which refugees have a chance to explain to an ICE officer that returning to Russia would put them in danger. In those cases, the officer could return the person’s passport and allow them — during the layover in a third country — to buy their own ticket to somewhere else, such as Turkey or Armenia. On the charter flights, there is no such option.

In August, some people resisted being put on the flight to Moscow, and Egyptian security officers beat them. One man was tied up to be sent back to Russia.

— Passengers on the most recent flight were given summonses in Russia, presumably for military service. Do you know what happened to them and to other deportees, many of whom are likely facing criminal prosecution?

— We know that people deported from the U.S. are subjected to heightened interrogation at the border. This time, they weren’t allowed to leave the airport for several hours after landing. They were asked what they had been doing in the United States, what their political views were, and whom they supported. On earlier flights, they were also interviewed by someone who introduced himself as a psychologist.

Whether anyone was detained after these interviews is unclear. We do know that several people from previous flights were later summoned to law enforcement agencies at their place of residence or registration. According to the deportees, these conversations were tense — officials mostly asked about their life in Russia [before they emigrated].

— You told Agentstvo that opposition figures were among those deported in December. Who were you referring to?

— These are people with opposition views who expressed those views in various ways: by attending protests or donating to opposition organizations. I can’t name them or share details, because they are now in Russia, where they’re in danger.

— Do you know what’s happening now with Russian army deserter Artyom Vovchenko, who was deported in August, or with Perm anti-war activist Leonid Melekhin, who ended up back in Russia in July?

— We know that both were arrested at the airport, where they were formally charged. They were assigned court-appointed lawyers, but we don’t know their current status within the criminal cases, so I can’t say with certainty what stage the proceedings are at. Most likely, the investigation is still underway.

— Your website says you monitor the cases of Russians in U.S. immigration detention. Can you give a minimum estimate of how many Russians are currently being held?

— We study this indirectly, since our main work is direct assistance and trying to engage with the U.S. government and with legislative and executive bodies. But we estimate that around a thousand Russians are currently in detention. Some are granted asylum; others are deported after their applications are denied.

At this point, Russians end up in detention only after being arrested inside the United States — not, as before, at the Mexican border. These are people who were admitted to the country years ago [to await an asylum decision] and have been living and working in the U.S.

Right now, immigration enforcement is especially focused on long-haul truck drivers whose asylum cases are still pending. They’re being detained and placed in custody. This happens particularly often in the southern states, where checkpoints have been set up to stop trucks. Large numbers are also being detained in Texas and Arizona.

— How do asylum decisions differ from state to state? Are approval rates higher in Democratic states and lower in Republican ones?

— You could put it that way, but the situation is changing quickly. Judges with high asylum-approval rates are being fired, and Trump is hiring new judges from the military.

Most Russians are held in immigration detention centers in the southern states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi. Judges in California tend to side with asylum seekers more often, though by no means always.

For example, [in August] a judge denied asylum to blogger and activist Igor Orzhevsky and his mother Irina, both of whom face criminal charges in Russia. The judge said their case was still under investigation and had not yet been sent to court, so they had nothing to fear. He also argued that anti-war views do not guarantee asylum because, at the front, one could serve as a driver or a medic instead of fighting. At the same time — and paradoxically — this same judge had previously granted asylum to people from Russia simply because they feared criminal prosecution.

— People held in detention don’t have access to phones and can only communicate with the outside world through paid calls approved by the administration. What other major problems do Russians in custody face?

— Immigration detention centers were originally designed for the short-term holding of refugees and migrants who had violated immigration rules. People were placed there for additional screening after crossing the border. So the entire infrastructure of these facilities is built for stays of two or three months. But since May–June 2024, they’ve started holding people there for more than a year. The system simply isn’t built for that. For example, medical units can provide only basic first aid — they can’t adequately treat people with chronic illnesses.

On top of that, detainees can’t realistically choose their own attorneys. They’re handed a sheet of paper with the phone numbers of local lawyers, many of whom are already overloaded and often don’t answer calls. And to find a truly competent lawyer, you need someone you trust on the outside — which many asylum seekers don’t have.

At the same time, many Russian-speaking attorneys, who became highly sought-after starting in 2021, don’t have strong qualifications. And there simply aren’t many of them. It’s common for a lawyer to stop responding after being hired and essentially abandon a client.

Many detainees don’t even know what documents their lawyer has submitted. Typically, attorneys file only the standard packet required for court proceedings. When we help asylum seekers, we look for lawyers who provide individualized support for each client.

Another problem is that immigration authorities often separate families when placing them in detention. A husband might be sent to California while his wife is sent to Louisiana. Their immigration cases then proceed separately, which creates serious difficulties. If the husband was the politically active one — the one who attended protests, was arrested and searched — then the wife can’t prove that she herself is an opposition activist who would be in danger in Russia. Even on the most recent flight to Russia, there were people whose spouses remained in the United States while they themselves were deported.

— When will the next large deportation flight to Russia be? How many more are likely in 2026?

— It’s hard to say. Since July, we’ve seen deportations happening almost every month, with only occasional breaks. It’s reasonable to assume that this trend will continue in 2026.

Interview by Timur Khairutdinov