Supreme Court: foreign agents cannot be election observers

Persons recognized as foreign agents cannot be election observers, according to a draft resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia.

The document on the consideration by the courts of cases on the protection of electoral rights notes that a foreign agent is not entitled to engage in activities that promote or hinder: the nomination of candidates or their lists, the election of registered candidates, the achievement of a certain result in elections or a referendum, as well as the holding of a referendum or the nomination of initiatives to carry it out.

Such a person also cannot “participate in other forms in election campaigns, referendum campaigns.”

“With this in mind, a person who has the status of a foreign agent cannot be an observer at elections, a referendum,” the document says.

The draft notes that foreign agents, in addition, will not be able to be proxies of candidates and electoral associations. According to RAPSI, the draft resolution contains a reference to one of the provisions from the law “On Control over the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence”, listing restrictions for foreign agents during elections.

Earlier in June, the Ministry of Digital proposed transfer to a special account royalties from Russian video and music platforms, e-book applications to authors – foreign agents who were held accountable for spreading fakes about the Russian army.

The status of a foreign agent in Russian legislation appeared in 2012 along with changes to the law on NGOs, it has been assigned to the media since 2017, and to individuals since 2020. In 2022, the law “On Control over the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence” was adopted ”, which combined all the legal acts relating to the activities of foreign agents, and established a single register for all holders of such status.

On April 26, a group of deputies submitted to the State Duma the so-called draft law “on third parties”. It prescribes to take into account, when interacting with foreign agents, the restrictions officially established for them, which are described in Art. 11 of the law “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence” (among them – being in power, teaching, government funding, etc.). In case of violation of this requirement, the Ministry of Justice can issue a warning for “assistance”, followed by a fine.