The Eurasian Antimonopoly Association (EAA) has been excluded from the register of foreign agents maintained by the Ministry of Justice. The human rights project “OVD-Info”* has drawn attention to this point. EAA was first listed as a foreign agent in June 2013.
The exclusion of the “Eurasian Antimonopoly Association” from the register of foreign agents took place on July 5. The reasons for this decision are not specified.
The EAA was added to the list of foreign agents on June 27, 2013. By data RBC Company website, organization has been liquidated June 27, 2023 – exactly ten years after being entered into the register of the Ministry of Justice.
“Kommersant” Remarksthat the “Eurasian Antimonopoly Association” positions itself as an association of jurists and economists from Eurasian countries. As OVD-Info* points out, the project’s website is down and the organization’s EAA Facebook page (owned by Meta**) has not been updated since 2020.
For the first time, the Ministry of Justice excluded people from the register of foreign agents in April 2022. Then the coordinators of the social movement “Voice” * Arkady Lyubarev and Lyudmila Kuzmina were excluded from the list.
In September 2022, the Ministry of Justice excluded from the register of foreign agents, the charitable foundation “Humanitarian Action” of St. Petersburg, which provides assistance and support to people infected with HIV. The reason for this was “the organization’s termination of the performance of the duties of a foreign official”, as well as the results of an audit of the main directorate of the ministry for the region.
According to Russian law, the Ministry of Justice can decide to exclude foreign agents from the register in several cases:
Individuals and organizations on the Foreign Agents Register regularly attempt to have them removed from this list through the courts, but so far no one has succeeded. In particular, on June 2, the Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow rejected the respective claims of showman Maxim Galkin*, blogger Ilya Varlamov* and artist and musician Semyon Slepakov*.
The status of a foreign agent also could not be disputed by the leader of the Time Machine group Andrei Makarevich *, singer Zemfira *, TV presenter Tatiana Lazarevajournalists Youri Dud And Dmitri Kolezevformer municipal deputy Yulia Galyaminaediting RosbaltTV channel “Rain” and others.
Nevertheless, lawyers believe that going to court, even in the absence of positive decisions in such cases, is not without sense. In particular, Galina Arapova, director of the Center for the Protection of Media Rights*, is convinced that it is important to document your disagreement with the decision of the state represented by the Ministry of Justice at the legal level. Lawyer Ivan Pavlov*, who himself tried to challenge the decision to put him on the list of foreign agents, is convinced that challenging the listing of a person or an organization on the register can have meaning for future litigation.
The concept of “foreign agent” was introduced into Russian law after the 2012 protests, in relation to non-profit organizations (NPOs) engaged in political activities and receiving foreign funding. By law, non-commissioned officers registered with the Ministry of Justice must submit income tax returns and indicate their status in all publications in the media and on the Internet. Subsequently, this status began to be granted to natural persons, legal persons and unregistered organizations. In 2022, foreign agent legislation was strengthened, prohibiting citizens and registered organizations from teaching and producing information products, hosting public events, and joining election commissions. In addition, the criteria for recognition as a foreign agent have changed – the opinion of the Ministry of Justice on “foreign influence” has become sufficient for this. Since the end of 2022, instead of four different registers of foreign agents (NPOs, media, unregistered public associations and individuals), the Ministry of Justice maintains a single register, which already includes more than 600 individuals and organizations.
*registered by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the register of foreign agents
** Meta’s activities to implement Facebook and Instagram are recognized as extremist in Russia and banned
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