My flat or accounts were arrested: what it means and what to do

• What happened. 'Arrest' can mean four different things. The Rosfinmonitoring list freeze: no court, banks block everything within 24 hours. Arrest in a criminal case: a court decides within 24 hours at the investigator's request, without you. Confiscation: only by a verdict and only certain property. Since 01.09.2026, arrest in 'political' administrative cases for actions abroad: the judge decides no later than the next day, even before any fine.
• What is banned. Disposal is almost always banned: selling, gifting, pledging. Use is banned only if the court says so, for example no renting out. Living in an arrested flat is usually allowed. Arrest is not confiscation: in a criminal case the verdict decides the property's fate; in administrative cases the arrest should be lifted after the fine is paid. In known political cases courts did not order confiscation and lifted arrests after the verdict.
• What should not be taken. An only home without a mortgage cannot be arrested for a fine or claim and cannot be taken 'in lieu' of confiscated property. A spouse's half and other co-owners' shares belong to them, although the whole flat may be frozen. Children's maternity-capital shares, once registered, are their property; if not yet registered, the arrest blocks their registration. A mortgaged home is not protected; the bank comes first.
• How to find out. Order an EGRN (property register) extract on your property: arrests and bans appear under 'restrictions and encumbrances'. A full extract goes to the owner or someone with a notarised power of attorney, within 3 working days. Check the bailiffs' enforcement database and the Rosfinmonitoring list. From abroad it is easier to ask a trusted person; Gosuslugi may not work, and people on the 284-FZ register are barred from online public services.
• How to challenge. A court order arresting property in a criminal case can be appealed on its own within 15 days. You can ask the investigator to lift an arrest that is no longer needed. A civil lawsuit does not lift such an arrest. An administrative arrest is lifted by application to the same court, decided within 5 days. Relatives can sue to release their property where it is located, or apply to the investigator.
• Deals and family. Before any case, dealing with your own property is lawful. After a case is opened, deals with relatives are declared shams: on a prosecutor's claim a court took a flat and a house from an emigrant journalist's mother-in-law. Dealing with arrested property or hiding it from confiscation is a crime. Rights groups advise doing nothing with property without a lawyer and keeping proof of relatives' own money put into joint purchases.
• Where to turn. First Department ('foreign agent') advises on cases and arrests. OVD-Info ('extremist'; it no longer gives legal help itself, write from abroad) has guides on frozen accounts and emigrants' property. Reforum Help advises on civil law. In Belarus property is taken through fines and auctions after in-absentia verdicts, as Viasna and Human Constanta (both 'extremist' in Belarus) report. This is not legal advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.

Designations of organisations in this guide: OVD-Info (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); Viasna Human Rights Centre (extremist in Belarus); Human Constanta (extremist in Belarus); Reforum Help (undesirable). Contacting them carries a risk: do not write from a phone that may be seized, and do not repost their materials.

current as of 26 September 2026. More: Law 218-FZ art. 62: who gets a full extract, 3 working days (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); EGRN extract form, section 2 pt 4 'restrictions and encumbrances' (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Criminal Procedure Code art. 115: arrest of property (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Criminal Procedure Code art. 165: court decides within 24 hours (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Criminal Procedure Code art. 389.4: 15-day appeal (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); KoAP art. 27.20 as amended by Law 168-FZ (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Law 115-FZ art. 3: what 'freezing' of property means (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Law 218-FZ art. 26: registration suspended on arrest (pt 37) and on listing (pt 37.1, part 6.1) (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Criminal Code art. 104.1: confiscation (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Civil Procedure Code art. 446: the only home (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Family Code art. 45: enforcement for one spouse's debts (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Law 256-FZ art. 10 part 4: maternity-capital homes must be shared with children (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Civil Procedure Code art. 442: claim to release property from arrest (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Supreme Court of Russia, 22.05.2026: a criminal-case arrest is lifted by the body handling the case (in Russian); Civil Code art. 170: sham and disguised transactions (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Radio Liberty: court seizes the flat of an emigrant journalist's mother-in-law as a sham sale (17.02.2025, in Russian) (foreign agent, undesirable); Law 284-FZ of 04.08.2026, full text (Garant, in Russian); Law 229-FZ art. 6.1: what the public enforcement database shows (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); First Department: the law on arresting emigrants' property (26.05.2026, in Russian) (foreign agent); OVD-Info: arrest of property for 'actions against Russia's interests' (updated 25.08.2026, in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); OVD-Info: where to get legal help (it no longer provides it itself; in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); Reforum Help: civil and tax law consultations (undesirable); Human Constanta: review of 'anti-extremism' measures, April-June 2025 (in Russian) (extremist in Belarus)