Russia Cancels Passport of Anti-War Student Who Fled Country

A university student who fled Russia last year to evade prosecution for criticizing the war in Ukraine said Monday that the Russian authorities canceled her internal passport.

“I’m not worried since I didn’t have any rights before anyway,” Olesya Krivtsova wrote in a Telegram post announcing her passport cancelation. “The only thing that’s worrying is how the insane government of R[ussia] comes up with more perverse ways to pressure those who left the country.”

A former resident of the northern city of Arkhangelsk, Krivtsova escaped to Lithuania in March 2023 to evade charges of “justifying terrorism” and “discrediting the Russian armed forces” in social media posts she made.

A few days after fleeing the country, the Russian Interior Ministry placed Krivtsova on its wanted list and arrested her in absentia.

The Norway-based Barents Observer news outlet, where Krivtsova currently works, reported that she discovered her internal passport was invalid in mid-July, soon after the Russian authorities denied her renewal request on the grounds that she was hiding from prosecutors. 

Krivtsova, who said she received her now-canceled passport while under house arrest, had signed the document with the word “freedom” — which may formally justify its cancelation. However, Barents Observer noted that two other activists from Russia have recently had their passports revoked while abroad.

“The situation with my passport shows that Russians in emigration urgently need to improve the system of legalization in case it becomes impossible to obtain documents in [Russia],” Krivtsova said in a Telegram post on Tuesday.

At least nine Russian citizens who fled the country have had their internal passports recently canceled by the Russian authorities, according to the investigative outlet IStories.

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