The guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.
Draft What human rights defenders advise
Designations of organisations in this guide: 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 25 September 2026. More: Kovcheg: leaving Russia without an international passport (foreign agent); OVD-Info: questions asked at the border (extremist); First Department: how persecuted Russians can travel (foreign agent)
Shows those who help where you are now. The choice works only on your screen.
Protects Russians in Kazakhstan from extradition and deportation and helps with asylum; also takes cases of Kazakh activists and journalists.
Helps people already in Kazakhstan; lawyer Artur Alkhastov advises Russians. Entering or transiting Kazakhstan is risky: since January 2026 the authorities have extradited and deported political refugees.
Other ways to reach them: Telegram channel @kibhr
Helps anti-war Russians, deserters and people mobilised against their will: evacuation, EU humanitarian visas, temporary housing and support in visa-free countries.
Since October 2025 Germany has effectively closed fast-track humanitarian visas for Russians. Ask which options remain.
The only official bot is @intransithelpbot. It never asks for money or SMS codes.
Other ways to reach them: website · team@intransit.help
German organisation supporting conscientious objectors and deserters: asylum advice and advocacy in individual cases.
In 2025-2026 BAMF has been rejecting Russian deserters en masse. Apply for asylum with a lawyer.
Germany's largest asylum rights organisation: advice, help finding a lawyer, appeals against refusals.
Association of Russian-speaking LGBTQ+ people in Germany: advice for refugees, community and support.
Help for refugees in the Netherlands: support through the asylum procedure, advice, integration.
Association of anti-war Russians in France: support for people facing persecution, community, public events.
Detailed, regularly updated reports on the asylum procedure in each EU country: timelines, detention, appeals, applicants' rights.
A reference database, not a helpline. Use it or UNHCR Help to find a local organisation.
UN Refugee Agency country pages: how to apply for asylum, where to go, local partner contacts.
One of Georgia's oldest human rights groups: strategic litigation, defence of people detained at protests, ECHR applications.
Since 14 March 2026 its general free legal aid is suspended: GYLA runs in 'crisis mode' and takes only strategic cases. For a free consultation, try the Transparency International Georgia legal centre.
How to avoid conscription and mobilisation; helps servicemen leave the country and find asylum.
The only official bot is @iditelesom_info_bot. There are fakes with lookalike names: @iditeiesom_info_bot, @lditelesom_info_bot. The real bot never asks for money or codes.
The only official bot is @iditelesom_info_bot. It never asks for money or SMS codes.
Other ways to reach them: website
Legal advice for people who have left (documents, residence permits, visas, asylum, extradition risk), temporary housing, free psychologists, mutual-aid chats by city.
Lawyers via the Telegram bots @kovcheglive_bot and @EmigrantHelpBot; psychologists and housing via forms on the website. The project was set up with support from the Anti-War Committee, designated 'terrorist' in Russia in March 2026; The Ark itself is a 'foreign agent'.
Other ways to reach them: team@kovcheg.live
Free psychologists and lawyers for forced emigrants: migration and visas, taxes, civil law, humanitarian residence; groups and seminars.
A Reforum project of the Free Russia Foundation, designated 'undesirable' in Russia. If you travel to Russia, contacting an 'undesirable' organisation or joining its events can lead to prosecution, so check with a lawyer.
Association of anti-war Russians in the US: helps Russian asylum seekers, including people held in immigration detention.
Since 2025 the US has been detaining and deporting Russian asylum seekers en masse; rights groups advise against crossing from Mexico without a lawyer.
Evacuates LGBTQ+ people, their loved ones and women threatened by their families from Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan; shelter, doctors, psychologists, lawyers.
Designated 'extremist' in Russia in summer 2026. The group says asking it for help does not count as taking part in its activities. It no longer has staff or volunteers inside Russia.
The only official bot is @sksos_helpbot. It never asks for money or SMS codes.
This organisation is designated 'extremist' in Russia. It says that a consultation is not participation in its work, but messages on a phone that may be seized and reposts of its materials are dangerous. Write from a device you would not hand over if detained.
I understand the risk, continueOther ways to reach them: sksos.org · help@sksos.org
In Russia, First Department and Solidarity Zone find lawyers. Lawyers abroad known for defending political cases: list of lawyers →