US sends Russian asylum seekers back to Moscow

US authorities have deported dozens of Russian asylum seekers to Moscow, including a serviceman wanted for desertion who has since been detained, the Guardian can reveal.

- Pjotr Sauer

At least two deportation flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) departed from the agency's major detention hub in Alexandria, Louisiana, and landed in Cairo, Egypt, where the asylum seekers were transferred to flights bound for Moscow with the cooperation of Egyptian and Russian authorities, according to interviews with passengers and human rights campaigners.

The first flight departed in midJune and carried about 30 Russian citizens. The most recent, on 27 August, transported approximately 50 people.

"We were shackled and handcuffed, then forced on to an Ice plane to Cairo," said one asylum seeker deported last week, who, like others, asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely.

They said their documents had been confiscated and that, after a two-hour stopover in Egypt, local authorities had ordered them to board a flight to Moscow.

On arrival in Moscow, passengers were subjected to "filtration": interrogations by Russia's federal security service (FSB). Those without criminal convictions were released.

The exact number of Russians deported, and how many of them had applied for political asylum, remains unclear owing to the opaque and chaotic nature of US deportation practices.

Among those deported on 27 August was Andrei Vovchenko, a 25-year-old former Russian serviceman who deserted his post in October 2022. He was wanted for desertion, according to an official defence ministry notice sent to his family.

The charges against him carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The Guardian was unable to reach Vovchenko, but witnesses who were on the same flight said he had been detained immediately on arrival in Moscow.