Users with Russian passports say Anthropic banned their Claude accounts right after an ID check. Paying customers say they lost access with no clear reason.
Several Claude users say Anthropic shut down their accounts moments after they uploaded a Russian passport to prove who they are. The complaints, reported by the outlet Meduza, appeared on Reddit, X and Telegram. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has not commented.
Some users were asked to verify their identity through a service called Persona. They had to pick the region of their document, upload a photo of it and complete a face scan. Why Claude asked them to do this is unclear.
Users say the ban comes right after the passport upload. It reportedly hits people who do not live in Russia but have no residency permit elsewhere.
One banned user wrote on Reddit that he is a Russian citizen living in New Zealand on a four-year visa. New Zealand is on Anthropic's list of supported countries. He paid for Claude and used it for work, personal tasks and Claude Code, a coding tool. His account was charged for a subscription two days before the ban. He got no explanation.
Users in Georgia and Armenia described similar problems. One in Georgia shared a letter from Anthropic's security team. It said automated systems found many signals that violated the usage policy and that staff confirmed the finding. It did not say what rule was broken.
The reports so far involve Russian documents. Users with Chinese citizenship face similar checks, though some have passed. China is also not on Anthropic's supported list. In early October, people in unsupported regions who used a VPN to get around the limits were also reported to be blocked.
Nothing in the material says people with documents from other countries are being banned. Still, it is not known who gets asked to verify, or why.
Anthropic's policy does not mention nationality or citizenship. It only lists countries and regions where its products are supported. In countries not on the list, people cannot use the service. Whether the passport itself triggers the bans is unconfirmed. The posts also could not be independently verified. Claude itself said it cannot check them.
The alert box above covers the steps. The main point is to save your own copy of important chats and work, because one user could only export his data after the block, and his appeal failed.
Keep your own copies of important Claude chats and work, and think carefully before uploading a passport and face scan.
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