On August 27, the United States deported at least 30 Russian citizens back to Russia, Dmitry Valuyev, president of the group Russian America for Democracy in Russia, told The Insider. Among those deported were asylum seekers. As Valuev explained:
“We don’t know exactly how many of them were political cases — it’s hard to collect reliable data. But I believe most were people who had applied for asylum. The problem is, it’s unclear how many lost their detention-related cases and, hence, were being deported, how many were detained on the street, and how many agreed to be deported voluntarily. One person managed to avoid deportation, but it’s still uncertain if ICE will try again. In theory, they shouldn’t — but right now, there is no trust in ICE. What we do know is that many people were held in the Alexandria detention center in Louisiana before being flown out via Cairo.”
Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist in exile who operates the site Gulagu.net, has also reported on the deportations. He says approximately 50 people were deported, and that after arriving in Cairo, the , Russian deportees were handed over to Egyptian security services before being flown to Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. Osechkin claims that upon arrival in Russia they were forced to undergo “filtration” — interrogations, threats, and pressure. Several people were detained, including former soldiers who had refused to fight in the war against Ukraine. Criminal cases were opened against some of them on various charges: desertion, working with “undesirable organizations,” financing extremism, and high treason. These reports of detentions and interrogations have not yet been independently confirmed.
