Photo: RFE/RL
On Jan. 30, Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office granted Russia’s extradition request for Chechen opposition figure and activist Mansur Movlaev. The decision was reported on Facebook by Movlaev’s lawyer, Murat Adam. The Kazakh agency instructed the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs to hand Movlaev over to Russian authorities no later than 30 days after the decision enters into legal force. The order was signed by Deputy Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan Askhat Zhumagali.
The defense considers the decision to be unlawful, as a preliminary hearing on Movlaev's refugee status appeal is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2026. According to members of the activist’s support group, the Prosecutor General’s Office had no right to issue an extradition decision while court proceedings on asylum are ongoing. They called on journalists, civil society activists, and UN special rapporteurs to intervene, warning that Movlaev could be facing death in Russia.
Mansur Movlaev, 29, is a Chechen opposition activist known for his criticism of Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. In 2020, he was sentenced in Russia to three years in prison on drug distribution charges that he says were fabricated. In 2022, Movlaev was released on parole, but he was soon abducted by security forces in Chechnya and held in one of the region’s secret prisons. The activist managed to escape and made his way to Kyrgyzstan using a forged passport.
In Kyrgyzstan, Movlaev was detained for making an illegal border crossing, and in November 2023 he was sentenced to six months in prison with subsequent deportation. In court, the activist asked to be given the maximum sentence, fearing the consequences should he be deported to Russia. After his release, Movlaev left Kyrgyzstan on his own and lived in Kazakhstan for around a year and a half. In October 2024, Movlaev reported that his brothers, Zelimkhan and Khamzat, had been abducted in Chechnya and tortured in an effort to pressure him.
In May 2025, Kazakh police detained Movlaev in Almaty on the basis of a Russian wanted notice, under which he faces charges of extortion and extremism. A court placed the activist under a 40-day extradition arrest — a preventive measure requested by Movlaev himself and his lawyers, who feared for his safety if he remained at liberty. On May 21, he was granted the status of an asylum seeker in Kazakhstan, which provided temporary protection from extradition. This past December, Movlaev applied for political asylum, but Kazakh authorities denied him refugee status.
Movlaev’s attorneys warn that if he is extradited to Russia, the activist would face torture and death. In an open letter to Kazakhstan’s citizens, Movlaev asked for help and stated that he would not want Kazakhstan to become complicit in his killing. According to human rights advocates, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office assured its Kazakh counterparts that the prosecution is not politically motivated and promised that Movlaev would not be tortured. Lawyers compare the situation to the case of another Chechen activist, Salman Tepsurkaev, who was extradited to Russia and later died.