The Russian Federation is a party to the Convention against Torture and, unusually among the countries on this page, an individual subject to its jurisdiction can complain to the Committee against Torture about it. The Committee has found torture practised in Russia as a means of extracting confessions. A United States immigration judge has granted withholding of removal to Russia.
Why this page exists
Russia is one of the countries people in the register are resisting being returned to. It has no arrangement with the United States to receive people removed from it, and it does not appear in the States Engaging in Refoulement project.
Russia is also listed in the Third-Country Removals project, on The Countries page, flagged as a destination country where torture is documented.
What Russia has accepted
The depositary record shows signature on 10 December 1985 and ratification on 3 March 1987. Both acts were those of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the obligation passed to the Russian Federation as the successor state. A page on this site should say so rather than imply that the Russian Federation signed in 1985.
On 1 October 1991 the Soviet Union made declarations under both article 21 and article 22. The article 22 declaration states that it recognises the competence of the Committee “to receive and consider communications in respect of situations or events occurring after the adoption of the present declaration, from or on behalf of individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by a State Party of the provisions of the Convention.”
That matters for a person. Unlike Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, The Gambia and Sudan, Russia has opened the individual complaint route. The declaration reaches only events after 1 October 1991.
What the Committee against Torture found
The Committee examined Russia and adopted concluding observations on 8 August 2018, at its sixty-fourth session. Under the heading Torture and ill-treatment, at paragraph 12, it recorded:
“The Committee is deeply concerned at numerous reliable reports of the practice of torture and ill-treatment in the State party, including as a means to extract confessions”
Russians sent to third countries
Human Rights First counts 754 cases between January 1998 and 31 August 2026 in which Russian nationals were granted withholding of removal (577) or protection under the Convention against Torture (177). Source: Human Rights First, 9 October 2026, p. 8
Russians holding that protection have been sent to Moldova. Third Country Deportation Watch records “16 people from Russia and Eastern Europe, including Russians granted withholding of removal by immigration judges” on a flight of 10 March 2026, and three Russians on a flight of 10 June 2026 on which, of the eight people it lists, “All had been granted withholding of removal by immigration judges.” One of them, a man from Bashkortostan granted withholding of removal by an immigration court in Louisiana in September 2024, told Idel.Realii, in a report carried by Current Time, that on arrival in Chișinău Moldovan border officers told him and the other Russians deported with him that they would receive no residence permit and could stay in the country for only 90 days. Sources: Third Country Deportation Watch, Moldova · Idel.Realii, carried by Current Time, 18 June 2026
Others have been sent to Uzbekistan. Third Country Deportation Watch records two Russians among six people sent there on 10 March 2026, and that at least one Russian, “who had been granted withholding of removal because of persecution for his political activism, left Uzbekistan for a third country within a day of arrival.” A Russian activist it calls P, granted withholding of removal in June 2025, told it: “We flew for two days in handcuffs and shackles.” It also records one person from Russia among the 31 people sent to the Central African Republic on 31 July 2026. Earlier, Costa Rica’s migration authority told Human Rights Watch that by 7 May 2025, 97 people expelled there from the United States had returned to their home countries, Russia among them, in circumstances that, Human Rights Watch wrote, “call into question whether their choices were truly voluntary.” Sources: Third Country Deportation Watch, Uzbekistan · Third Country Deportation Watch, Stories · Third Country Deportation Watch, Central African Republic · Human Rights Watch, 22 May 2025
Russians have also been removed to Russia itself by way of a third country. Human Rights First describes “layover-transfer removal flights” used “to carry out deportations to countries with which the U.S. has strained diplomatic relations, including Russia (via Egypt)”, and Third Country Deportation Watch leaves “Russians removed to Moscow via Egypt” out of its counts, as removals through a layover country, here Egypt, that “has not agreed to process and accept them”. On 31 October 2026 the Associated Press quoted Savitri Arvey of Human Rights First on flights it had tracked, among them “a Russian political dissident removed via Egypt to Russia”. Sources: Human Rights First, ICE Flight Monitor, September 2026 report · Third Country Deportation Watch, overview · Associated Press, 31 October 2026, as published by La Nación
What the register records
Vashchuk v. Bondi, Western District of Washington, 11 February 2026. A Russian man who arrived at a port of entry and was detained in May 2024 sought asylum on the ground that he feared persecution in Russia for opposing corruption. An immigration judge found he had a well-founded fear of future persecution by the Russian government and granted withholding of removal, recording that but for the presumption of ineligibility required by the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule she would have granted asylum outright.
The government then proposed to remove him to Uganda, by notice of intent in September 2025. Requests were later sent to Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with no reply. The entry is in the register of court decisions.
The register also holds Kossov v. INS, Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 5 January 1998. At the start of a hearing that concerned Latvia, the immigration judge designated Russia as the wife’s country of deportation and Latvia as the husband’s, and then ordered them both deported to Russia. The court vacated the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals and remanded, because the judge had never told the couple, who were without counsel, that they had the right to seek asylum and to present evidence against deportation to Russia. Source: Kossov v. INS, 7th Cir., 5 January 1998
Sources
Treaty status and the text of the article 21 and 22 declarations: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary record for the Convention against Torture, chapter IV-9, read 14 September 2026.
Committee against Torture, concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the Russian Federation, CAT/C/RUS/CO/6, adopted 8 August 2018: docs.un.org.
Russians sent to third countries: Human Rights First, In the Middle of the Night, They Come and Get You, 9 October 2026, page 8, and ICE Flight Monitor, September 2026 report; Third Country Deportation Watch, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Stories, Central African Republic and overview, read 5 November 2026; Idel.Realii, carried by Current Time, 18 June 2026; Human Rights Watch, The Strategy Is to Break Us, 22 May 2025; Associated Press, 31 October 2026, as published by La Nación. Kossov v. INS, No. 96-3910 (7th Cir. 5 January 1998): CourtListener.