Human rights lawyers obtain a secret Russian registry of more than 3,000 suspected extremists. The hidden database targets prominent journalists and musicians.

The human rights group Department One has obtained a confidential Russian financial monitoring registry of people suspected of involvement in terrorism, extremism or sabotage, or of financing those activities. It has published a searchable database containing more than 3,000 names, revealing a hidden system that can expose people to serious financial restrictions and possible criminal scrutiny.

Rosfinmonitoring sends the registry to financial institutions, which can freeze listed people’s accounts. Inclusion is decided by an interagency commission, and people face restrictions similar to those on Russia’s public list of extremists and terrorists. The database names prominent figures including journalists Leonid Parfenov and Andrey Loshak, musicians Boris Grebenshchikov and Vera Musayelyan, film critic Anton Dolin and director Vitaly Mansky; a Department One lawyer said listing could signal that security or law enforcement agencies are considering an investigation. The law allows asset freezes where there are “sufficient grounds” for suspicion but does not define that threshold.