The Ministry of Justice published a unified register of foreign agents

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has published a unified register of individuals and organizations recognized as foreign agents in the Russian Federation. Scroll published on the website of the department.

In total, the register contains 493 titles. The list includes all citizens and organizations that were previously declared foreign agents.

The last time the Ministry of Justice updated the register of individuals acting as a foreign agent was on November 25. Then the ministry included there are six more people in it, including the ex-mayor of Yekaterinburg Yevgeny Roizman, lawyer Ilya Novikov and the host of Dozhd (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) Anna Mongait.

In November, foreign agents also were recognized journalist Irina Shikhman, Noize MS musician, politicians Vyacheslav Maltsev and Mikhail Svetov, editor-in-chief of the Republic (recognized as a foreign media agent) Dmitry Kolezev and others.

The status of a foreign agent appeared in Russian legislation in 2012 along with changes in the law on NGOs. The media has been assigning it since 2017, and to individuals since 2020. A new register of foreign agents appeared on April 5 – the Ministry of Justice enters into it those individuals who received funding from Ukraine and were engaged in political activities.

In addition, on December 1, the law “On Control over the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence” came into force. According to the document, Russian and foreign companies, public associations and individuals who receive support from abroad, are subject to foreign influence and are engaged in political activities can be recognized as foreign agents. In the State Duma explainedthat foreign influence is understood as “the provision of support by a foreign source to a person or the impact on a person, including through coercion, persuasion or other means.”

Foreign agents are required to label their materials. Also, they cannot teach in public schools and universities, create materials for minors, receive state support, hold public office, etc.

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