A United Nations special rapporteur has warned that Russia is systematically targeting its citizens who have fled abroad, presenting findings to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 21 September based on nearly 400 documented cases. Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on Russia, described the campaign as a state-driven, institutionalised strategy — extending the same repressive apparatus used inside Russia across borders into Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Europe — through methods ranging from physical assault to digital surveillance, banking restrictions, and international arrest warrants. The report notes that between 650,000 and 900,000 people have left Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, representing the country's largest wave of political emigration since the 20th century, and calls for a binding international convention on transnational repression to better protect those targeted.