Russia’s wanted list. An updated and user‑friendly database

Previous findings

Our initial investigation, published in February 2024, revealed that Russia is actively seeking foreigners it describes as “mercenaries” serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We also found dozens of European politicians and officials,including Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who are wanted on criminal charges in Russia.

Several months later, we discovered that another national leader, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had been added to the list, though the notice was quickly removed after our report. The most likely explanation for this was a local initiative by the police department in occupied Donetsk.

Latest update: archive cases, rapper Face, and new missing persons in the Kursk region (September 2024)

Overall statistics

Between March and September 2025, 32,085 new notices were added to the Ministry’s website. Of these, 24,506 relate to criminal cases, while the remainder are for missing persons.

The number of notices which deleted from the database since our initial publication has risen from 30,649 to 55,319. This does not necessarily mean a wanted person has been detained or that the charges have been dropped. The exact reasons for these deletions are not always clear.

People added to the database in this latest update (since March 2025) are marked with a plus sign (+). Those who have been removed since our first publication are marked with an X.

Old cases

In August, the Ministry of Internal Affairs completely rebooted the wanted persons database on its website—for the first time in five years. This resulted in a record number of records that “disappeared” (which were there before but are no longer there) and the appearance of a large number of new ones in their place. However, many of these “new” records are definitely for people who have been wanted for a very long time in connection with old criminal cases.

For example, the database now includes Boris Meerson, a teacher accused of sexually abusing students at the elite Moscow School No. 57, and his alleged accomplice, Maria Nemzer.

Both were arrested in absentia after being declared wanted in early 2017, but the database now indicates they have been “re-declared” as wanted. It is unclear whether this means that the criminal case has been reopened or whether the note is simply a technicality for all archived cases which appeared on the website.

Foreigners in the AFU

The number of foreigners whom Russian investigators appear to be seeking due to their participation in the war on the Ukrainian is now more than seven hundred: among them, 460 people from the “Rybar List” and 283 who have been mentioned in one way or another in connection with their service in the AFU.

Wanted celebrities

In July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs added the rapper Face (Ivan Dremin) to its wanted list. It seems, however, that the police intended to keep the case quiet; a few days after Mediazona spotted the notice, it disappeared from the website.

Other well-known figures added to the wanted list include the founder of the Anderson café chain Anastasia Tatulova and Dmitry Bykov, poet and literary critic.

The list of “terrorists” and “extremists”

Since our last update in March 2025, we have begun annotating entries where a wanted person’s full name and date of birth match those on the official list of “terrorists and extremists”. This list is maintained by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial intelligence unit. For now, we are only noting the match itself, as we do not have more detailed information.

The list now includes people charged with spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, as well as those accused of various other offences under the Criminal Code that the authorities consider to be politically motivated or “extremist”.

Mediazona thanks Ivan Shukshin for providing the Rosfinmonitoring data.

Missing persons in the Kursk region

In addition to people wanted on criminal charges, the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ website also lists missing persons.

On August 6, 2024, Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Russia’s Kursk region and seized a part of the Sudzha district. Many local residents found themselves in the territories controlled by the AFU.

On August 21, the Ministry of Internal Affairs began adding large numbers of missing persons from the Kursk region, mostly from the Sudzha district, to its database. By March 2025, by which time Ukrainian troops had almost completely withdrawn from Russian territory, 1,254 local residents had been added.

Even though the Ukrainian presence ended more than six months ago, residents of the Kursk region are still being added to the missing persons database. In September 2025 alone, 40 people were added from the region, compared with 26 from the neighbouring Belgorod region during the same period.

At the end of August 2025, the governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, reported that a special local register contained 2,132 names, of whom only 590 were listed as missing. “We know the whereabouts of 300 of them,” Khinshtein added.

Mediazona was able to track down 1,388 Kursk residents on the Interior Ministry’s website who were listed in the search database at the time of the AFU’s invasion. Currently, 560 people remain listed as missing, roughly matching the figure cited by Khinshtein.

Belarusian citizens on Russia’s wanted list

As we have previously observed, the Russian Interior Ministry includes people on its wanted list who are sought by its Belarusian counterparts, including those persecuted for political reasons. In the five months since our last update, 1,180 citizens and natives of Belarus have been added to the wanted list. Among them are former political prisoners, journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition activists.

The database

Just like before, we are publishing the complete, searchable list of people wanted by Russia. You can search for names across the entire database or within specific categories. These categories are not exhaustive; our work aims to uncover and document politically motivated prosecutions. If you notice something interesting that has escaped our attention, please contact Mediazona.

And a reminder:the absence of a name from our database, or indeed from the Ministry’s own website, is not a guarantee that a person is not facing criminal charges. The database is not a definitive record, and its omissions do not confirm a person’s innocence or the absence of a criminal case against them.

Download the data: GitHub (.csv file)