Exiled human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov says Russia put him on a wanted list

Prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who fled Russia in September to escape criminal charges, says he has been put on a wanted list.

Pavlov told Interfax on Thursday, October 28, that he learned there was a warrant for his arrest from Alexander Chaban, the FSB investigator handling the treason case against one of his clients, former journalist Ivan Safronov.

“On September 20, the investigator in my criminal case issued a resolution on putting me on a wanted list. Even though neither me nor my lawyers have been summoned to the investigator since July, and it’s not difficult to establish my whereabouts — it’s enough to call me,” Pavlov said on Thursday.

Pavlov, who currently resides outside of Russia, added that what remains unclear is whether he was put on a federal, interstate, or international wanted list.

• In April 2021, Ivan Pavlov was charged with leaking classified trial data from the treason case against former journalist Ivan Safronov. Courts prohibited him from using the Internet and speaking to his own clients and many of his own colleagues. Pavlov fled Russia for Georgia in September, saying that the pre-trial restrictions had made his work “impossible.”
• Pavlov is the founder of the defunct human rights organization “Team 29,” which specialized in defending suspects accused of treason and espionage. The organization disbanded in July 2021, after the Russian Attorney General’s Office ordered local Internet service providers to start blocking Team 29’s website.