US authorities have expelled another group of Russian citizens from the country.
Dmitry Valuyev, president of the group Russian America for Democracy in Russia, said in a Facebook post that, as in previous cases, the removal is routed through Egypt.
It is at least the fifth deportation flight carrying Russians since the start of 2025.
The plane departed from Phoenix, Arizona, with citizens of Iran and several Arab countries also on board. “Among the Russians are those who were denied asylum as well as people whose petitions and appeals to higher authorities are still pending,” Valuyev wrote. He said the deportees spent several days before departure in a detention center on airport grounds, where cells were overcrowded and people had to sleep on the floor.
Valuyev told The Insider that the exact number of Russians deported on January 25 is unknown but runs into the dozens. “We couldn’t precisely count how many were being deported because they were brought [to the detention center] in groups and kept in different rooms, but there will be several dozen Russians. They are expected to arrive in Russia on Monday evening, January 26.”
“Upon arrival, Russia’s FSB interrogates deported Russians. Sometimes they threaten, sometimes they offer cooperation, sometimes they say, ‘you’ll be summoned at your place of residence’,” Valuyev said.
A previous group of Russians was expelled from the US in early December.
Upon arrival in Moscow, all men on board were handed military draft notices.
There are at least two known cases in which Russians deported from the US were arrested upon return to Russia: Perm activist Leonid Melekhin, charged with “justifying terrorism,” and service member Artyom Vovchenko, who faces a criminal case for unauthorized abandonment of his unit.
