Russian authorities have frozen bank accounts and real estate belonging to dozens of people who participated in opposition festivals and awards ceremonies outside the country, according to the independent outlet Agentstvo. The restrictions have affected cultural figures and activists associated with the SlovoNovo festival and the Dar literary prize.
Festival founder Marat Gelman told journalists that the restrictions affected around 100 people. According to him, it became a problem for only 15–20 people who still have assets in Russia. The rest “already have nothing in Russia, and some of them have long been designated foreign agents and extremists,” he explained.
Political scientist Yekaterina Shulman first reported the restrictions on her program “Status.” According to her, accounts and real estate of well-known cultural figures began to be frozen without their notification on the basis of an unofficial “secret list” of terrorists and extremists. The people whose assets were frozen were not defendants in criminal cases and were mostly associated with the SlovoNovo festival and the Dar literary prize.
After the freezes began, a small number of potential participants refused to take part in the event, Gelman said. The Dar prize team said they have no information about asset freezes affecting those linked to the prize.
The decision to freeze assets is made by the Interdepartmental Commission on Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Extremist Activity. It received the authority to freeze people's money and property back in 2025, said lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov of the First Department legal group. For freezes, neither a conviction nor a criminal case nor a person's inclusion in the public list of terrorists and extremists is required, the lawyer emphasized.
By law, the commission's decisions must be published, but they cannot be found, Smirnov noted: “This commission has no website, and nothing of the sort can be found on the Rosfinmonitoring website.” The commission's decision can formally be appealed in court, but assets are frozen before the court hearing, and the grounds for the restrictions may remain unknown to the affected person, he concluded.