Transnational repression has become a common tactic for authoritarian regimes seeking suppression of dissent beyond their borders. With the rapid spread of technology, globalization, and unprecedented ease of global mobility, it is easier than ever for regimes to reach their opponents, even from thousands of miles away. A report for the European Parliament, from June 2025, found that 43 governments have engaged in transnational repression against activists and journalists over the last decade.
Sophisticated Operations to Target Dissidents
For the Russian regime, transnational repression has long been a routine instrument of coercion. Moscow has repeatedly demonstrated its ability and willingness to eliminate, abduct, or intimidate opponents living outside the country. Such acts do more than silence individuals the regime finds inconvenient; they send a chilling message to anyone who might dare to challenge the regime in the future.
In 2025, a British court sentenced five Bulgarian nationals who targeted Roman Dobrokhotov on behalf of Russian intelligence services over the course of several years. Dobrokhotov is an investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of The Insider тАУ a major independent media outlet that publishes explosive investigations about the Kremlin and its covert operations in Europe. Amid the surge of political repression in Russia, he fled the country and eventually settled in the U.K., where he was subjected to a sophisticated espionage operation.
The spy network continuously surveilled him, using access to airline databases of flight routes and seating arrangements to track his air travel across Europe. The agents used hidden cameras and other technical means to monitor his movements, and developed plans for his abduction or assassination, as well as logistical plans to forcibly remove him from British territory. Though the plan was foiled due to the efficient work of the British law enforcement agencies, which arrested the suspects in 2023, the Dobrokhotov case remains just one of many examples of the Kremlin targeting dissidents abroad. Throughout the years, multiple Russian nationals have been assassinated and targeted on British soil, including through poisonings with polonium and chemical nerve agents.
Similarly, in October 2025, four individuals were charged in France with plotting the assassination of Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of Gulagu.net, an organization that since 2011 has been exposing torture and corruption within RussiaтАЩs prison system. Despite relocating to France in 2015, Osechkin continued to receive death threats and repeatedly moved between safe houses. In 2022, he reported the first attempted attack, when he saw a red targeting dot on his wall at his home in Biarritz, France, just before gunshots were heard nearby. No one was arrested, but another attempt was underway three years later.
In October, shortly before the attempt was set to take place, FranceтАЩs counter-espionage agency arrested four individuals, citizens of Russia and France, suspected of plotting OsechkinтАЩs assassination. Osechkin later said the plot involved hired mercenary assassins that would kill him live on air to instill fear among activists investigating abuses by the Kremlin. The arrested individuals have now been formally charged and will most likely stay in custody while the investigation continues. Both this and the Dobrokhotov cases represent instances in which authoritarian regimes deploy surveillance, hired guns, and covert agents to intimidate, kidnap, or kill international targets.
The Growing Geographic Spread of Transnational Repression
However, the use of these tactics is not confined to regimes with such extensive intelligence and technical resources, nor is it confined to one region. In January, Lim Kimya, a former Cambodian opposition MP and outspoken regime critic, was fatally shot in broad daylight while visiting Bangkok, Thailand, with his wife. According to police, the gunman arrived on a motorcycle, shot him, and fled the scene. Kimya was a member of the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was dissolved ahead of the 2018 election for alleged treason. International media reports speculated that the assassination was politically motivated. Although the Thai court sentenced a Thai national and former marine, Ekkalak Paenoi, for the killing, two Cambodian suspects believed to be the masterminds of the assassination remain at large.
In June, retired Nicaraguan army officer Roberto Samcam was shot and killed by a hitman outside of his apartment in Costa Rica. Although Costarican authorities continue to investigate the case, Nicaraguan organizations in exile are certain the attack was orchestrated by agents of the Ortega-Murillo regime. Samcam was a supporter of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista movement during the time of the Marxist revolution in Nicaragua in the 1980s, but became a fierce critic of Ortega after he returned to power in 2007, accusing him of seeking to perpetuate himself in power and to exploit the armed forces and the police for his own ambition. Samcam went into exile in Costa Rica in 2018, after his house was raided by regime loyalist paramilitary forces. In 2023, the regime stripped him and other 93 exiled dissidents of their Nicaraguan citizenship.
Delivering Justice: Lessons for Democracies
In the last decade, there have been hundreds of cases where dissidents in exile have been targeted by oppressive regimes, often times through direct cooperation between an aggressor and the host country, which, in many cases, are democratic states. Despite these trends, there are examples where democracies prevent these acts from happening on their soil and deliver justice to victims. Notably, in November 2025, a court in New York sentenced two Russian mob leaders to 25 years in prison for the 2022 assassination attempt of Iranian womenтАЩs rights advocate and former Oslo Freedom Forum speaker Masih Alinejad.
As perpetrators of transnational repression extend their reach, democracies must stay vigilant to ensure that dissidents seeking refuge are not intimidated into silence, and that offenders, like AlinejadтАЩs would-be killers, face justice.
