Russia keeps a public register of the jurisdictions it treats as hostile, and membership of that register carries concrete legal effects for anyone doing cross-border business with the country. For a family office that still holds Russian assets, or a foreign investor trying to unwind a Russian position, the label attached to a counterparty's home jurisdiction now decides which payments clear, which deals need state approval, and how much value survives an exit.
Two different lists travel under the word "unfriendly", and they are easy to confuse. The older one, in place since May 2021, only caps how many local staff a foreign embassy may employ in Russia. The list that matters for money is newer: the register of unfriendly states and territories approved on 5 March 2022, which is wired directly into Russia's currency, investment and tax counter-measures.
Key parameters of the regime:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Who falls under the regime | Applies to a person or company tied to a listed jurisdiction that touches the Russian economy |
| United Kingdom | Includes the Crown Dependencies of the British Crown and the British Overseas Territories |
| European Union | Single entry — all 27 member states, not named individually |
| Tax treaties | Operative clauses of 38 double-tax treaties suspended by Decree No. 585 of 8 August 2023 |
| List discrepancy | Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine are on Order No. 430-r but have no treaty on Decree No. 585's list |
| Dividends | 15% withholding tax on dividends to unfriendly-state recipients |
| Interest and royalties | General rate under art. 284(2) Tax Code, for foreign organisations without a permanent establishment |
| List amendments | Order No. 2018-r (23 July 2022) and Order No. 3216-r (29 October 2022) |
Where the list comes from
The economic list sits in Government Order No. 430-r of 5 March 2022, adopted to give effect to Presidential Decree No. 95 of the same day on the temporary procedure for paying certain foreign creditors. It was published on 7 March 2022 and has been amended twice since. Order No. 2018-r of 23 July 2022 added the Bahamas and extended the United Kingdom entry to the British Crown Dependencies, and Order No. 3216-r of 29 October 2022 recast that entry to cover the Crown Dependencies of the British Crown and the British Overseas Territories. No amendment has followed, so the version in force is the one dated 29 October 2022; note that the English translation on the Government portal still reproduces the original March 2022 wording.
In that version the register carries 23 entries. The European Union occupies a single entry, worded as member states of the European Union with no member named individually, so the 23 entries correspond to 49 separate states: 22 country and territory entries plus the 27 EU members. The British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories sit inside the United Kingdom entry and are not counted separately. Singapore is the seventeenth entry, having been sixteenth before the Bahamas were added; Hong Kong is not on the register at all. Every G7 state is listed, and Turkey is the only NATO country left off.
The roster below reproduces the designated states and should be read against the live text of Order No. 430-r, since the government amends it by simple order and compiled copies date quickly. The entry "Taiwan (China)" is the register's own wording for Taiwan, and the European Union is designated as a bloc rather than through individually named member states.
Non-friendly countries (Order No. 430-r as amended by Order No. 3216-r of 29 October 2022)
- Australia
- Albania
- Andorra
- Bahamas
- United Kingdom (including the Crown Dependencies of the British Crown and the British Overseas Territories)
- Member states of the European Union
- Iceland
- Canada
- Liechtenstein
- Micronesia
- Monaco
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Republic of Korea
- San Marino
- North Macedonia
- Singapore
- United States of America
- Taiwan (China)
- Ukraine
- Montenegro
- Switzerland
- Japan
Friendly countries (informal, as of July 2026)
- Azerbaijan
- Armenia
- Belarus
- Kyrgyzstan
- Kazakhstan
- Tajikistan
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
- Algeria
- Bangladesh
- Bahrain
- Brazil
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Hong Kong
- Egypt
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Qatar
- China
- Cuba
- Malaysia
- Morocco
- Mongolia
- United Arab Emirates
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Thailand
- Turkey
- South Africa
What the designation actually triggers
Designation works through specific restrictions that switch on whenever a person or company tied to a listed jurisdiction touches the Russian economy. Three of them matter most for private wealth.
The first is the type-C account. Under Decree No. 95, money owed to creditors from unfriendly states — coupons, dividends, repayment of principal — is paid not to the creditor but into a restricted rouble account at a Russian bank. The funds formally belong to the creditor yet cannot leave Russia without separate permission, which turns a hard-currency claim into frozen roubles.
The second is prior approval. The Government Commission on Control over Foreign Investment must clear most transactions in which the counterparty comes from an unfriendly state, and the terms it sets have hardened. Since October 2024 a foreign owner selling a Russian business has to accept a mandatory discount of at least 60% to appraised value and pay a "voluntary contribution" to the federal budget of 35% of that value, settled in instalments over two years; deals above 50 billion roubles also need the president's personal sign-off. Once the discount and the contribution are taken out, a departing seller typically keeps around 5% of what the asset is said to be worth.
The third is the loss of treaty protection. By Decree No. 585 of 8 August 2023 Russia suspended the operative clauses of its double-tax treaties with unfriendly states — with an important caveat: the 38 treaties concerned are enumerated by name in Article 1 of the Decree itself, which makes no reference to Order No. 430-r, and the two registers do not fully overlap (Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine sit on Order No. 430-r but have no treaty on the Decree's list) — so domestic withholding now applies where a reduced treaty rate used to: 15% on dividends, and for interest and royalties the general rate for income of foreign organisations without a permanent establishment (art. 284(2) of the Tax Code), which was changed in the 2025 tax reform and has to be checked against the version in force on the payment date. Currency-control duties also weigh more heavily on residents who keep accounts or route funds through listed jurisdictions; the notification and annual-statement obligations are set out in the piece on Russian currency residency and foreign-account reporting.
The wider toolkit
Finance is only part of the regime. The same designation drives retaliatory import tariffs of 35% and above on a range of goods from listed territories, the suspension of visa-facilitation arrangements with the European Union and several neighbours, and a rule under Decree No. 299 that lets Russian users pay nothing to patent holders from unfriendly states. None of this is settled: the government keeps adding both measures and jurisdictions by order, so a structure that was compliant a year ago can find itself on the wrong side of a new instrument.
How the register affects private client structures
For an owner of capital, an unfriendly designation is a reason to rebuild the structure. EU and UK holding companies lose their point once the treaty clauses are suspended and the exit of funds is controlled; the answer has been redomiciliation into the special administrative districts on Russky and Oktyabrsky islands. Foreign companies inside a structure are still declared as controlled foreign companies, and assets are increasingly landed in a Russian personal fund or a friendly jurisdiction.
A simple example: a Cypriot holding sells its stake in a Russian operating business. The Government Commission clears the deal, fixing the discount to appraised value and the budget contribution; dividends accumulated before the sale settle into a type-C account and cannot leave without separate permission; and withholding tax applies to the payment itself, because the relevant treaty article with Cyprus is suspended. One jurisdictional label switches on three restrictions at once.
Operational questions turn on the register too. Cross-border payments move to routes in friendly currencies, above all in yuan; personal accounts are opened at banks outside the sanctions perimeter. The beneficiary's own relocation can change tax residence under the applicable rules. Separately, Russian citizens must notify the Russian authorities of foreign citizenship or a foreign residence document confirming the right to permanent residence, where required by Article 11 of Federal Law No. 138-FZ, following the applicable procedure and deadlines.
Where Regulation Is Heading
The architecture itself remains in force even as the rhetoric softens: in September 2025 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke of gradually moving away from the very term "unfriendly countries". Order No. 430-r and the related presidential decrees continue to apply unchanged. In parallel there is a separate register of states "imposing destructive ideological attitudes" (Order No. 2576-r, 2024), which exists to simplify the relocation of foreign nationals to Russia and is not directly connected to Order No. 430-r.
"Friendly" is a residual category
There is no official "friendly countries" list to set against the unfriendly one. A jurisdiction counts as friendly only because it has not been designated, and the second roster on this page is an informal compilation rather than a legal instrument. The distinction still carries weight — the Bank of Russia uses it to decide which non-residents may trade or hold securities with fewer restrictions, and several clearing and currency rules turn on it — but the boundary is drawn by exclusion from Order No. 430-r, not by any positive enumeration. Any circulating "friendly" list, including the one above, is best treated as a convenience to be checked against current regulation.
Seen from the other side, the register predicts little about how a jurisdiction's banks treat Russia-linked money. Of the nine third jurisdictions most used for Russian settlements, only Singapore is on Order No. 430-r and has adopted its own measures; the UAE, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, China, India, Armenia and Georgia are all off the register, yet there the binding constraint is the correspondent chain and each bank's exposure to US secondary sanctions. The comparison across those nine — own restrictions, the regime that actually binds, secondary-sanctions risk — is laid out in the third-jurisdictions table of the sanctions cluster map.
Q/A
Does citizenship alone determine whether Russian “unfriendly-country” rules apply?
No. Order No. 430-r names states and territories, while the operative decree or Bank of Russia rule defines the persons and transactions covered. Citizenship can matter, but place of registration, residence, control and the transaction itself may also be decisive. Check the rule governing the specific payment or deal.
Is every country outside Order No. 430-r officially “friendly”?
No. Order No. 430-r is a list used for specified measures; it does not create a universal legal status of “friendly country” for every purpose. Other instruments may use their own lists or criteria. For a transaction, identify the governing decree, government decision or Bank of Russia regime and use its current scope.
Can money in a type C account be remitted abroad at the holder’s request?
Not as ordinary freely transferable funds. The Bank of Russia’s type C regime allows only enumerated credits, debits and transfers. Crediting such an account does not require separate permission, but debits remain limited to permitted cases; an operation outside the regime may require a separate authorisation.
Does Order No. 430-r itself ban all payments and transactions?
No. It identifies jurisdictions for specified measures; the legal consequence comes from the decree, government decision, Bank of Russia act or permission regime governing the transaction. The list cannot replace analysis of the parties, currency, account type, amount, purpose and transaction date.
Can the country list on this page be the only check before closing a transaction?
No. Use the current text of Order No. 430-r and then verify the specific decree, government decision and Bank of Russia rule that applies on the transaction date. Bank compliance and any required permission should be confirmed before funds or assets are committed.