The court in Vladivostok ordered to exclude the journalist from the list of the Ministry of Justice
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The Sovetsky District Court of Vladivostok declared illegal and subject to cancellation the decision of the Ministry of Justice to enter journalist Daniil Gubarev into the register of foreign agents. The author of the Telegram channel, which criticized the regional authorities, was included in the list for distributing materials of other foreign agents and living abroad. According to the journalist’s lawyers, representatives of the Ministry of Justice in court failed to prove the fact of foreign funding of their client, and the argument about living in Singapore did not convince the judge. The court decision will not help other foreign agents to appeal against the actions of the Ministry of Justice, lawyer Konstantin Dobrynin believes, referring to the vague norms of the relevant legislation.
The decision of the Sovetsky District Court of Vladivostok in the case of Daniil Gubarev was reported to RIA Novosti by the press secretary of the Primorsky Regional Court Elena Oleneva. The journalist’s lawyer, Sergei Valiulin, said that the court had invalidated the Justice Ministry’s decision to include Mr. Gubarev on the list of foreign agents.
The former journalist of the VL news agency from Vladivostok, Daniil Gubarev, the author of the Telegram channel (35.7 thousand subscribers), who criticized the authorities of Primorye, was recognized as a foreign agent in March 2023. The message of the Ministry of Justice explained that he “distributed materials created by foreign agents to an unlimited circle of people”, and also “lives outside the Russian Federation”. According to Sergei Valiulin, the representative of the Ministry of Justice did not provide evidence in court that the journalist “was under foreign influence” and received “remuneration for publications” from representatives of other states. “The Ministry of Justice actually had only one argument: Gubarev has been living in Singapore for two years, but this did not convince the court,” Mr. Valiulin assured. The Ministry of Justice has not yet commented on the decision. Lawyer Valiulin is sure that the department will appeal the decision to the Primorsky Regional Court.
Individuals were previously excluded from the list of foreign agents, but only by decision of the Ministry of Justice itself. So, in April 2022, the department for the first time excluded Arkady Lyubarev and Lyudmila Kuzmina from this register of coordinators of the Voice movement (recognized as a foreign agent) (they have been on the list since September 2021). In addition, in October 2022, the Ministry of Justice excluded journalist Vladimir Voronov from the list of foreign agents “due to the lack of funding from foreign sources during the year.”
The court only once recognized as illegal the assignment of the status of a foreign agent, and it was a question of a legal entity. So, in February 2022, the city court of St. Petersburg overturned the decision of the Ministry of Justice, which recognized the Humanitarian Action Charitable Foundation (helps HIV-infected people) as an NPO-foreign agent. According to the plaintiff’s representatives, they managed to convince the court that the activities of the NPO “are in the field of healthcare, not politics.” However, in June 2022, the Third Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction overturned the decision of the St. Petersburg City Court. However, in September 2022, the Ministry of Justice still excluded the fund from the list of foreign agents.
Daniil Gubarev told Kommersant that he “absolutely disagreed” with the March decision of the Ministry of Justice (on recognition as a foreign agent). “Glad we won in court. But I won’t be surprised if everything is returned back again,” the journalist said. He explained his move to Singapore by saying that the “climate is good” there.
Pen & Paper senior partner Konstantin Dobrynin believes that the decision “is senseless to consider as a law enforcement icebreaker that will break the ice of foreign agents, and even more so will force the Ministry of Justice to argue its position more clearly.” “It is very likely that the Ministry of Justice will procedurally disagree with this decision, continuing to appeal it, so it makes sense for the defense to prepare for further struggle. The very essence of modern legislation on foreign agents is such that in order to recognize a citizen as a foreign agent, practically nothing is required to be proved or fundamentally substantiated – it is excessively vague. The fact that the court pointed this out for the first time does credit to the court, but does not change the trend,” Mr. Dobrynin believes.
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