My family is being pressured while I'm abroad

• What happens. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Russia (September 2026), pressure on relatives has become a common way to silence people who left or make them come back. Police, the FSB or Centre 'E' visit parents; in Belarus, the KGB and GUBOPiK. There are 'chats', summonses to questioning as witnesses, searches, seized devices and threats of cases against the relatives themselves. According to OVD-Info, since 2022 relatives have been made to call those who left and ask them to return, or to record apology videos.
• Relatives' rights. By law no one has to testify against themselves, their spouse or close relatives: art. 51 of the Constitution and art. 56 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in Russia, art. 27 of the Constitution in Belarus. Close relatives under Russian law: spouse, parents, children, full brothers and sisters, grandparents, grandchildren. A 'chat' has no basis in law and can be declined, but what is said may be recorded. Questioning requires a summons, and a lawyer can come along. In practice refusing to talk sometimes angers officers, so decide with a lawyer in advance how to refuse.
• Searches and papers. A search in a case against someone who left most often takes place at their registered address: if you are registered at your parents' flat, officers will go there. Don't keep your documents or devices at your relatives' homes. Relatives are better off signing nothing they haven't read in full and writing any disagreement straight into the record. By law devices are seized with a written record; ask for a copy.
• Property. Since 1 September 2026 (Law 168-FZ) a court can freeze the property of someone abroad in cases under certain 'political' administrative articles if the offence was committed abroad. Bank money is frozen first, and if there is none, a flat or a car. It is a ban on disposing of property, not confiscation. Under the text of the law, property that is legally your relatives' is not covered by this freeze. But First Department lawyers see a risk for property bought during a marriage and for gifts to relatives made after a case began. If you are put on the 284-FZ register, relatives can no longer act for you under a power of attorney. In one case in Belarus, officers searching the parents of an exiled activist made an inventory of their belongings.
• What you can do. Don't come back because of promises to 'just talk' or to 'leave your parents alone': such promises have no legal force. In Belarus people were detained even after a short visit to their family. Don't tell relatives about your plans, address or activities by phone or in chats: they may be questioned and their phone seized. Agree on a code word in case relatives are made to call you. Note dates, names and agencies: a lawyer needs this, and it may help an asylum claim. Decide together with your relatives and human rights defenders whether to go public: publicity sometimes protects and sometimes increases pressure.
• The Caucasus, Central Asia and where to turn. In Chechnya relatives of critics have been abducted and held for weeks, made to disown them publicly, and in 2025 families were expelled from the republic (see 'Fleeing the North Caucasus'). If you are from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan or Turkmenistan, see the situation on pressure on families in Central Asia. Where to turn: First Department (foreign agent), Network Freedoms, and First Line psychologists for relatives. For Belarusians: Viasna ('extremist' in Belarus; contacting it from Belarus is dangerous). OVD-Info is designated 'extremist' in Russia: relatives in Russia should not write to it or donate; you can write from abroad instead.

Designations of organisations in this guide: OVD-Info (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); Viasna Human Rights Centre (extremist in Belarus). 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: UN Special Rapporteur on Russia: 'Nowhere is safe', report on transnational repression (A/HRC/63/60, 8 Sep 2026); OVD-Info: pressure on the families of persecuted people (2024 study, in Russian) (extremist); First Department: guide for activists' relatives (in Russian) (foreign agent); Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 56: witness rights (ConsultantPlus, in Russian); Constitution of Belarus, art. 27 (pravo.by, in Russian); First Department: the law on freezing emigrants' property and risks for relatives (in Russian) (foreign agent); Federal Law 168-FZ of 10 June 2026 (official publication, in Russian); OVD-Info: the law on the register of emigrants (284-FZ), powers of attorney and the allowance for relatives (in Russian) (extremist); HRW: World Report 2026, Russia (Chechnya: families of opponents expelled) (undesirable); Nasha Niva citing Viasna: KGB searches at the homes of exiles' relatives (22 May 2026, in Russian) (extremist in Belarus); Nasha Niva citing Viasna: the EHU case, parents forced to bring their children back (4 June 2026, in Russian) (extremist in Belarus); Reform.news citing Viasna: even a short trip to Belarus can end in detention (9 Sep 2026, in Russian) (extremist in Belarus)