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In Russia, even death isn’t enough to get you off the terrorist watchlist. Around 100 dead people remain on the registry — including Alexey Navalny.

Among the more than 20,000 names on Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “terrorists and extremists,” Meduza found around 100 people who have already died. One of them is the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Two years after Russian authorities killed him in prison, his family still hasn’t been able to get his name struck from the registry — despite the law clearly stating that documented confirmation of death is grounds for removal. Here’s what we know about the dead stuck in Russia’s extremism database.

Meduza: About a Hundred Deceased Individuals Listed as 'Terrorists and Extremists'

About a hundred people listed as 'terrorists and extremists' have already died, according to Meduza, citing data from the Register of Inheritance Cases. The Rosinfomonitoring list contains about 20,000 people in total. The number of 'dead souls' on the list could be much higher, as inheritance cases are not always opened after a person's death, especially if the deceased was prosecuted under a terrorism charge, the publication notes. There is no clear answer as to why people may continue to be listed as 'terrorists' and 'extremists'. As Meduza notes, there is no mechanism for removal from the registry. In the case of politician Alexei Navalny, who died on February 16, 2024, and is still on the list, lawyer Mikhail Benyash said it is due to complex bureaucratic procedures. 'The last time my client was removed from the registry, it took about 6-8 months of malicious correspondence with prosecutors and the FSB, with attached certified copies of the verdict. Without active correspondence, it can take even longer,' he said. According to a response from Rosinfomonitoring, published by Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny will not be removed from the registry until the criminal case against him is closed. As Meduza writes, the earliest person to die from the list of 'terrorists and extremists' was Ruslan Yakhyaev from the Shelkovsky district of the Chechen Republic. He died on March 4, 2000, at the age of 32, and his inheritance case was only opened in 2021. In the summer of 2023, he was added to the list despite being deceased.