Russian Activists Face Uncertain Future in Spain After Promises of Residency Fall Through

A group of 65 Russian dissidents who moved to Spain last year claims they are now in a state of legal uncertainty after Spanish officials allegedly failed to keep their promises regarding residency status, according to a report by El Pais on Monday.

These exiled activists, including former regional coordinators for Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, were granted tourist visas on humanitarian grounds to travel to Spain last summer following diplomatic efforts by Madrid. They assert that Spanish authorities guaranteed them a streamlined residency application process, but those assurances fell through when critical government contacts ceased communication.

Many of these dissidents had sought refuge in Georgia before relocating to Spain, prompted by worsening safety conditions in the South Caucasus, where authorities have increasingly targeted both local dissenters and exiled critics of the Kremlin.

The Free Russia Foundation, an advocacy group for democracy based in the United States, collaborated with Spanish officials to facilitate the activists’ relocation from Georgia.

Since then, some of the activists have had their applications for humanitarian residency denied. Spanish officials concluded that they did not face a demonstrable risk upon returning to Russia, despite the intensified campaign by Moscow against opposition voices and some individuals facing criminal charges in Russia for their anti-war stances.

According to El Pais, out of the 14 activists whose residency applications were processed, eight have already been denied.

“Without that assurance, we would never have come to Spain,” said Egor Kuroptev, head of the South Caucasus office for the Free Russia Foundation, in an interview with El Pais. “As a result, the resettled group has been living in an irregular status in Spain for over six months.”

Later on Monday, Kuroptev informed The Moscow Times that his organization received written confirmation from the Spanish Foreign Ministry regarding the expedited residency. He mentioned that he shared these documents with El Pais and El Mundo but refrained from showing them to The Moscow Times due to ethical considerations.

“This relocation plan had been discussed at all levels of the Spanish Foreign Ministry since the summer of 2023, and all procedures were thoroughly agreed upon, including correspondence detailing the specific type of residency permit and other particulars,” he stated.

“At this point, we simply want to capture the government’s attention and request their assistance as soon as possible,” he added.

Kuroptev expressed his belief that miscommunication within the Spanish Foreign Ministry, along with changes in the assigned coordinators, resulted in the suspension of assistance for the group of activists.

Officials from Spain’s Foreign Ministry denied any assurance of residency and asserted that the dissidents are eligible to apply for asylum, as reported by El Pais.

The ministry did not respond to a request for comments from The Moscow Times.

An activist based in Tbilisi, who was initially involved in the relocation, noted that the Free Russia Foundation created a list in August 2022 for individuals wanting to move to Spain with their assistance, but the process became delayed and seemed to have come to a halt.

“At one point, they [Free Russia Foundation] reached some sort of agreement with the Spanish Foreign Ministry and started compiling an initial list, which only included well-known figures—media-savvy activists,” the activist told The Moscow Times, requesting anonymity.

“They were initially issued tourist visas and came to Spain, but for some reason, the Spanish authorities did not fulfill the agreements that Free Russia Foundation communicated to the activists, and now they have expired Schengen tourist visas,” the activist explained.

Some members of the group of Russian exiles in Spain contend that applying for asylum now—after being advised to follow a different path—could prevent them from working or traveling for years while their cases are processed in an already overloaded system.

“There is a mechanism for international protection that they can apply for, which is what the Foreign Ministry is currently suggesting publicly. That is correct,” Kuroptev told The Moscow Times.

“However, the issue is that obtaining a residence permit through international protection in Spain can take years. That’s why we spent a year negotiating every stage of the process,” he added.

Mack Tubridy contributed to this report.