The Russian Embassy refused to issue a passport to the wife of the “discredited”

The Russian Embassy in Lithuania refused to issue a new passport to Russian citizen Krystyna Zavyalova. Her husband is wanted for an anti-military action, he is accused of discrediting the Russian armed forces. As reported by “Vyorstka”, this is already the third such case in the past week.

The Zavyalov family are citizens of Russia, they have a residence permit in Lithuania. In April 2022, Vladimir Zavyalov replaced price tags in a Smolensk supermarket with stylized anti-war leaflets. A criminal case was opened against him under the article on spreading fakes about the army and he was sent under house arrest. After the prosecutor’s office asked for six years in prison for Zavyalov, he cut off the tracking bracelet and moved to Lithuania with his wife and child. He was also wanted in Russia for unpaid debts of 30,000 rubles.

In December, Krystyna Zavyalova applied to the embassy for a new foreign passport, as the old one was expiring. However, the embassy refused, referring to the “letter of the UFSSP [службы судебных приставов] in the Smolensk region.” The embassy agreed to issue a new foreign passport to the Zavyalovs’ minor child.

The head of the international practice of the human rights association “Agora”, lawyer Kirill Koroteev, regarded the embassy’s refusal as a violation of internationally recognized human rights. As Koroteev explained, the presence of unpaid debts in Russia is an obstacle to issuing a passport. The ECHR recognized that these restrictions did not correspond to the right to freedom of movement under the European Convention on Human Rights, but its decisions were ignored by the Russian authorities. Also, the restrictions cannot apply to the debtor’s relatives.

• As “Vyorstka” notes, this is already the third case in the last week when Russian embassies and consulates abroad refuse to issue passports to opposition-minded Russians. The same Russian embassy in Lithuania previously refused to issue a passport to the ex-coordinator of Navalny’s Yaroslavl headquarters, Elena Lekyashvila, due to an unpaid fine for participating in a rally against Navalny’s arrest in 2021. The Russian Embassy in Canada did not let Russian Elena Pushkareva into its building because she was subscribed to an anti-war Facebook group and participated in political rallies in Ottawa.