On May 5, the Ministry of Justice added associates of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Maria Pevchikh* and Georgy Alburov* to the register of foreign agents. Information about it published on the department’s website.
In addition, the list of foreign agents included:
Popular Politics host Yan Matveev*; politician Alexander Osovtsov*; political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky*; opera singer Maria Maksakova-Igenbergs*; political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov*; human rights activist Elena Agafonova*; social movement “Soft Power”*; public organization “St. Petersburg Russian PEN Club”*; “SK SOS Crisis Group”*; Taiga.info edition*.
The status of foreign agent in Russian legislation appeared in 2012 alongside changes to the NGO law, it has been granted to the media since 2017, and to individuals since 2020. There are now more than 550 individuals and organizations in the unified register. The law that led to its creation was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2022 and came into force on December 1.
After that, to assign the status of “foreign agent”, the authorities only had to indicate the “foreign influence” under which the new person on the list is. This influence is defined in the law as “the provision by a foreign source to a person of support or influence over a person, including by coercion, persuasion or other means”.
In addition to the register of foreign agents, a register of persons affiliated with them has also appeared. It includes founders, managers or employees of organizations-foreign agents and those who have engaged in political activities and received money from persons and organizations already registered in the register of foreign agents or participated in their activities .
At the end of November 2022, the State Duma adopted a bill amending 40 federal laws to regulate the activities of foreign agents. The adopted norms, in particular, prohibit citizens with such a status from carrying out educational and educational activities with minors, they are also prohibited from being allowed to teach in state and municipal educational institutions.
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