From left, Russian dissidents Ilya Yashin, Yulia Navalnaya and Vladimir Kara-Murza hold hands after speaking during a demonstration in Berlin in November, 2024. All three are still active members of the anti-Putin opposition.Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press
Three prominent Russian dissidents, including Alexey Navalny’s widow, have written to Prime Minister Mark Carney asking him to grant asylum to their colleagues at risk of being deported back to Russia by the Trump administration.
The letter, shared exclusively with The Globe and Mail, says “several hundred opposition-minded Russians” who entered the United States legally in hopes of receiving political asylum were instead being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres. Many of their claims are now being denied amid President Donald Trump’s campaign to dramatically cut back on the number of immigrants living in the U.S.
“Unfortunately, following the change of administration in the White House, the situation for our compatriots has significantly worsened,” the letter reads.
“Today, many Russian citizens who have applied for asylum in the United States are being held in immigration detention centers, despite having committed no violations of the law. … Worse still, U.S. courts are increasingly issuing denials of asylum claims and granting the executive branch the authority to deport our compatriots back to Russia – where, as a rule, this means immediate arrest by Putin’s security services.”
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The letter is signed by Yulia Navalnaya, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, three well-known activists who have personally suffered for their opposition to the Kremlin.
Ms. Navalnaya is the widow of Alexey Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison camp early last year. Mr. Kara-Murza and Mr. Yashin, meanwhile, were separately jailed for speaking out against Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both were released last year as part of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and the West.
All three are still active members of the anti-Putin opposition, which now exists largely outside of Russia. In an effort to energize and consolidate the Russian exile community, the three organized a pair of large anti-war protests in Berlin over the past year.
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In their letter, the trio praise Canada for its “steadfast commitment to defending humanist values, human rights, and the victims of aggression” and ask the country to open its doors so that Russians expelled from the U.S. can be sent to Canada instead of back to Russia.
“We ask that Canada adopt a decision to grant asylum to those Russian citizens whose opposition and anti-war activities are beyond doubt, and who are subject to deportation orders by the U.S. authorities,” the letter reads. It goes on to request that Canada inform the U.S. of its willingness to accept Russian dissidents and suggest that a working group be set up to process asylum requests at the Canadian embassy in Washington.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Yashin said the trio had not yet approached any Canadian officials with their plea but were hopeful that the letter’s publication in The Globe would receive a positive response.
“Our letter is the first step. This is, in fact, an invitation to dialogue. We hope that we will find understanding, that we will be heard,” he said.
He said Mr. Kara-Murza – who was made an honorary citizen of Canada in June, 2023, while in prison for his anti-war activities – planned to visit Canada in October to discuss the proposal with officials. Mr. Yashin said he was also willing to travel to Canada if Mr. Carney’s government responded positively to the letter.
He said the idea to turn to Ottawa for help came out of frustration with the Trump administration, which has shown no interest in engaging with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s critics. Mr. Trump has often spoken admiringly of the authoritarian Kremlin boss, who has crushed all political opposition and independent media during his quarter-century in power.
“I have been to the U.S. twice, knocked on different doors,” Mr. Yashin said. “The current administration in the White House simply does not want to hear us.”
Mr. Yashin speaks about Russia under Putin, in Belgrade, Serbia, on Aug. 1. He says the U.S. administration has not showed interest in engaging with opponents of the Kremlin.Zorana Jevtic/Reuters
The feared scenario of dissidents being deported back to Russia has already started to unfold. Gulagu.net, a Russian human-rights group, reported last week that a group of “more than 50” Russians – escorted by ICE agents – were sent to Egypt, where they were handed over to Egyptian authorities, who then put the Russians on two flights to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport.
“All those forcibly deported from the United States to Domodedovo were put through ‘filtration’ – hours of interrogation using pressure, threats and, for some, violence and special means,” reads an Aug. 27 posting on the Telegram channel of Gulagu.net, with the information attributed to unnamed sources. Some of the deportees were released after promising to co-operate with Russia’s special services, Gulagu.net reported, while others were threatened with being sent to fight on the front line in Ukraine.
The letter to Mr. Carney highlights the specific case of Leonid Melekhin, a supporter of Mr. Navalny’s who fled first to Mexico, then entered the U.S. in August, 2024, after being invited to a hearing with immigration officers. Instead of being granted asylum, Mr. Melekhin was held in detention centres in California and Arizona until his case was finally rejected this July.
Now he is back in Russia (Russian media say he was deported from the U.S., while his lawyer says it was Mr. Melekhin’s decision to return). He is being held in pretrial detention on “terrorism” charges connected to a poster he shared online that called for Mr. Putin to be hanged.
Mr. Yashin says Mr. Melekhin faces as many as 15 years in prison if convicted.
Russia’s opposition leaders are hoping Canada will offer itself as an alternative destination so that Mr. Melekhin’s fate is not repeated with other dissidents who have seen their once-warm reception in the U.S. turn icy.
Mr. Yashin said there are about 1,000 Russians currently seeking political asylum in the U.S. He said he and the other letter writers envisioned only a few hundred of those being accepted into Canada.
“We are talking about people whose cases have been verified, whom we have no doubts about, to whom we can give an absolutely clear recommendation,” he said. “Canada demonstrates a much more humane attitude toward anti-war Russians, and I really hope that we will be heard.”