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Narrator: Some foreign governments seek to intimidate and silence their citizens who are visiting or living in the United States. These governments may also target members of their diaspora who are permanent residents, naturalized or U.S.-born citizens, members of their family, or friends.

This practice—called transnational repression, or TNR for short—threatens American sovereignty, infringes on individuals' rights and freedoms, and sometimes violates U.S. federal law.

On this episode of our podcast, we'll define TNR, explain the different forms it can take and why the FBI investigates it, and teach you how you can report suspected incidents to the Bureau.

This is Inside the FBI.

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Narrator: Transnational repression is a complex threat, so let's begin with the basics.

Deputy Assistant Director Emily Morales: Transnational repression is when a foreign government attempts to threaten, silence, coerce or even harm members of dissident communities, vocal diaspora, or even just members of religious or ethnic minority communities outside of their own territorial borders.

Narrator: That's Emily Morales. She leads the Bureau's Analysis Program.

Morales: It is intended to either silence them or get them to express opinions in the way that that foreign government would seek to have happen.

One of the really troubling things about transnational repression is that communities are sometimes pressured to monitor themselves and others because they may have family members back in their country of origin who are being repressed or pressured.

Narrator: In this way, foreign governments impede the rights and freedoms of people in the United States.

Morales: And that's why the FBI takes this so seriously.

FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky: At the most basic level, the FBI investigates violations of federal law, and TNR cases are usually violations of federal law.

Narrator: That's Roman Rozhavsky, who leads the Bureau's Counterintelligence Division.

The FBI also investigates transnational repression because it can infringe on Constitutionally-protected rights that extend not only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents but to anyone located on U.S. soil.

Lastly, fighting TNR is especially important to the Bureau because we're both an intelligence and law enforcement agency.

Rozhavsky: The role of counterintelligence is to stop foreign governments from doing anything on U.S. soil that harms national security or harms U.S. citizens, and many TNR cases are perpetrated by the intelligence services or other officials of foreign governments. So, it's the first priority of counterintelligence to stop that from happening.

Morales: Any U.S. citizen, no matter where they are in the world, has the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. So even if they leave our borders, a U.S. citizen is still a U.S. citizen with their own rights.

But anyone who's here in the United States under other status, we still want to ensure that no country is violating the sovereignty of our laws and how we support the rights and freedoms of the people who live here.

Narrator: According to Rozhavsky, the perpetrators are typically ...

Rozhavsky: ... authoritarian regimes who really place a lot of importance on their regime's stability. They see any criticism as a threat and as a call to revolution.

Morales: China and Iran are some of the most prolific repressors of communities, both in United States and everywhere. But we see a number of countries. Anyone who is hoping to control the message about what the world is like from their perspective.

Rozhavsky: So, this is also part of a larger battle showing that democracy works and democracy can protect the people who live under it.

Morales: So many of the communities and individuals come to the United States to have and enjoy the freedoms that we have, to then be followed and potentially tracked down—literally or figuratively—by the foreign country they chose to leave. They need to live in that safety and protection that we all have here.

Narrator: These nation-states typically target individuals whom they catch criticizing their governments. According to Rozhavsky, an individual need not be a social media influencer or other major public figure to become a target of TNR.

Rozhavsky: Let's say a student makes a statement criticizing the government. A lot of authoritarian governments, such as China, actually encourage other people to report behavior like that. One person reports it, and then they're on the radar, and these governments take this so seriously that they're willing to go after someone, even if they don't have a massive audience.

The goal is to make everyone in the community afraid. If they only went after people who were popular and had a massive social media following, then everyone else would say, "As long as I don't have a massive audience, I'm safe." But if they go after everyone, then they create this climate of fear, which makes it so that everyone is afraid to express their opinion. And that's the end state they're looking for.

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Narrator: Transnational repression can take many forms, including:

stalking
online disinformation campaigns
harassment
intimidation or threats
forcing or coercing the victim to return to their country of origin
threatening or detaining family members or friends in the country of origin
abusive legal practices (such as lawsuits, asset freezes, or withholding legal documents like passports)
cyberhacking
assault
attempted kidnapping and
attempted murder.
Rozhavsky: In some of the most brazen cases, we've seen attempted or successful kidnapping by luring people to third countries under false pretenses. We've seen attempted assassinations.

And the most memorable case of TNR is when the country of Belarus forced down a civilian airliner that had a dissident from the Belarus protests on it. And they called in a fake bomb threat and then escorted the aircraft with fighter jets to land in Belarus and then took the dissident off the plane. And he's been in prison since.

Narrator: And, Morales stressed, TNR doesn't only harm its direct targets.

Morales: It also just creates a climate of fear and concern within some communities. So, even if they individually haven't experienced threats or repression, they're living under a cloud of wondering if it is safe to express their opinions or meet in groups or gather.

I've even had community members ask me, "Is it safe to go to this type of event? What should I do if something happens to my parent? Or is it safe to eat the food at a particular kind of place?"

It's just a terrible level of concern that a lot of people are living under, even if they individually haven't been repressed, because that is the larger silencing that a foreign government is hoping to achieve.

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Narrator: Morales said that it's also critical for law enforcement agencies to be aware of the TNR threat since foreign governments have been known to tap them for information on potential targets. The FBI has also seen TNR manifest as false leads to law enforcement, manipulating normal law enforcement cooperation into a means of repression and additional harassment of the victims.

Morales: For law enforcement partners who may be receiving lead information or requests for information from a foreign government or a foreign policing partner, sometimes this is how foreign governments can use law enforcement to target people inside the United States.

And so, we would ask that they exercise caution so that we don't become unwitting partners with a law enforcement element from another country to engage in repression of people here in the United States.

That's something the FBI has done a lot of training and outreach on so that we are strengthening law enforcement partners here in the United States to be good partners with us in helping protect people from repression.

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Narrator: You can report suspected transnational repression to the FBI by calling us at 1-800-CALL-FBI—that’s 1-800-225-5324—or by submitting an online tip at tips.fbi.gov.

When the FBI receives a TNR-related tip, we route it to the appropriate field office, as well as to the Bureau’s Transnational Repression Cell. We review every lead and conduct queries to determine if the alleged crime violated federal law. Field office personnel will also often reach out to the tipster to get more information.

Victims are also encouraged to save screenshots, emails, text messages, and any other identifiers that could help further any potential FBI investigation.

You can visit fbi.gov/tnr to learn more about transnational repression and access relevant resources.

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Narrator: This has been another production of Inside the FBI.

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And you can subscribe to email alerts about new episodes at fbi.gov/podcasts.

On behalf of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs, thanks for tuning in.

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