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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
For years Russia has used international search procedures against opponents, businessmen, and journalists. Lawyer Anatoliy Fursov analyzed 116 such cases from 47 countries and published a practical guide to defense.
In May 2024 the Russian Interior Ministry put Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko on its wanted list. For world leaders this is a symbolic gesture. For an entrepreneur, emigrant, or journalist, the same search can end in arrest at the airport of any of the 196 Interpol member countries.
How they bypass Interpol’s ban
Article 3 of the Interpol Statute prohibits the organization from engaging in political matters. So political persecution is framed as ordinary criminal cases—fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion. People usually learn about a search at passport control.
According to an investigation by the BBC and Disclose (January 2026), over 11 years at least 700 people wanted by Russia complained to Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Files (CCF), and at least 400 succeeded in having notices cancelled. Some of the additional checks on Russian requests introduced after the invasion of Ukraine have since been rolled back. And inside Russia it is almost impossible to defend yourself: in 2024 there were fewer than 0,2% acquittals.
The author experienced it himself
In 2023 the Russian Ministry of Justice listed Fursov as a “foreign agent,” then opened a criminal case and attempted to have him declared wanted through Interpol. The CCF found the request politically motivated and removed the dossier.
Three traps
"They removed me from the database — I’m free." A CCF decision only affects Interpol systems. Data remain in national databases, the Schengen Information System, and the CIS wanted lists—people have been detained even after the notice was removed.
"One procedure is enough." Deleting data does not close the criminal case, asylum does not clear databases, and a refusal to extradite applies only in one country.
"Everyone already sees that this is politics." No single body will determine that by itself. Evidence must be gathered in advance—before detention.
"Persecution that lacks legal grounds ceases to be invulnerable at the moment a documented, corroborated position is built against it," writes Anatoliy Fursov.
About the book
"Interpol as a Tool of Politically Motivated Persecution: A Practical Defense Guide" is 493 pages and contains 116 real cases. The book walks the entire path: checking your status, detention and extradition, complaints to the CCF, the ECHR and the UN, asset protection. Appendices include checklists and sample documents. The book was published in Russian, English, and Spanish, available as an ebook and as an audiobook. More details are on the Interpol Guide website.
About the author
Anatoliy Fursov is an international lawyer, forensic expert, and human rights defender, PhD, MBA, and an expert on Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. For more than 17 years he has defended people wanted for political reasons. He is the managing partner of the law firm Dombrovitsky & Partners and the founder of the international human rights network INTERPOL-SOS, which brings together lawyers, journalists, and experts from more than 200 states.
He is the author of over a hundred expert opinions for courts and migration authorities in the EU, the US, and the UK. He leads investigations for the investigative journalists’ group News-Opposition; in 2023 he provided Meduza with materials on torture in Russian pretrial detention centers that were used in UN work. His work has been written about by The New York Times, El Mundo, El Confidencial, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Meduza, and Novaya Gazeta Europe.
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