The Yeltsin Center reacted “calmly” to the Ministry of Justice’s check on a foreign agency

The Ministry of Justice, together with Roskomnadzor and Rosfinmonitoring, prepares an annual report on state control over the activities of foreign agents.

The Duma Commission for Combating Foreign Intervention receives “many complaints about violations of restrictions imposed on foreign agents,” said its head Vasily Piskarev (ER). He recalled a package of bills that deputies are going to adopt in the first reading next week: the Ministry of Justice will be allowed to monitor whether authorities from top to bottom, organizations of all forms of ownership and citizens are assisting foreign agents in violating the prohibitions established for them. If they do, they will first warn them, and those who do not correct themselves administratively will be fined.

The Ministry of Justice and the government as a whole support the bills, Oleg Sviridenko, deputy head of the department, confirmed. He reported on how the state fought against foreign agents “in the face of unprecedented pressure from the West.”

In 2022, the media and individuals were included in the register by 43.7% more than a year earlier – this is due, according to the official, “with an increase in the number of messages and materials aimed at discrediting Russia’s domestic and foreign policy in connection with the events in Ukraine” , as well as in connection with the adoption of a law on the complete ban on LGBT propaganda. Now the register includes 614 NGOs, public associations without forming a legal entity, media and individuals.

The text of the report (available on the agency’s website) says that Western money, only about 700 million rubles, which is 34% less than a year earlier, was stated in their reports for the past year by 35 NPO-foreign agents. “Whoever pays orders the music,” Mr. Sviridenko noted on this occasion, saying that the United States is the largest sponsor. How much money these same NGOs received from Russian donors was not specified.

According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Justice, three out of 11 NGOs included in the register in 2022 “opposed the conduct of a special military operation in defense of the Ukrainian criminal regime.”

“In order not to give the impression that our legislation is so oppressive, harsh and unpredictable, let me remind you that there is an opportunity to leave the register,” the speaker emphasized: in 2022, out of eight organizations that filed applications to review the decision to recognize them as foreign agents, three were heard. 18 preferred to be liquidated after being included in the register.

Among individuals-foreign agents there are “a number of well-known opposition politicians, political scientists, journalists, writers and bloggers,” the report says. “Recently, they massively filed applications with the court, trying to challenge the inclusion in the register,” but not a single attempt of this kind was successful, Mr. Sviridenko recalled, and named Maxim Galkin and Zemfira (recognized as foreign agents) ..

As an example of successful preventive work, he cited the story of the bust of Yevgeny Roizman, who was included in the register of foreign agents, in the gallery of Yekaterinburg mayors – at first, they say, it stood without marking, “three months later, the city authorities managed to direct the eyes of the city authorities to this situation, and now he (the bust – “MK”) with marking, if it costs more.

It’s worth it, Andrey Alshevskikh (“ER”) clarified, and drew attention to the fact that “only the lazy one does not remember the Yeltsin Center”: he, Alshevskikh, personally “applied to the Prosecutor General’s Office, they checked, no violations were revealed”, and now let and the Ministry of Justice will check again, “in order to stop conversations and speculation once and for all” and understand whether they “fall under the concept of a foreign agent or not.”

“As for the verification, we have started it, it is underway,” Mr. Sviridenko replied. Later, he clarified to journalists: the check will take at least a month, materials will be collected on the activities of the Center, “confirming or refuting the texture that sounded” in Nikita Mikhalkov’s program “Besogon” and in the appeals of deputies from different parties – the Communist Party, in particular.

“We learned about the check from today’s news. We have not yet received any documents or requests from the Ministry of Justice. Let’s take it easy. We are convinced that there is no reason to classify us as foreign agents, ”Lyudmila Telen, First Deputy Executive Director of the Yeltsin Center, commented at the request of MK on the official’s statements …

Deputy head of Roskomnadzor Vadim Subbotin, in turn, reported: at the moment, more than 1.5 thousand protocols have been drawn up against foreign agents for violating labeling requirements, fines have been imposed in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles, “250 foreign agents have stopped their information activities, in relation to one filed a criminal case for non-compliance, 48 fully comply with all material labeling requirements.”

Maria Butina (ER) wanted to know if the accounts of those foreign agents who live abroad and do not pay the fines issued to them are blocked. “I get asked all the time what to do with films, books, videos and audio recordings – if an actor, for example, gets into the register, should there be a label when the film is shown? Should everything be marked, or only what was created before being included in the register?” she asked.

Mr. Piskarev recalled that any unpaid fines are dealt with by bailiffs who can block accounts if necessary. Mr. Sviridenko did not clarify the issue of labeling films and songs, and at the end of the event he told reporters that “legislation on foreign agents will continue to change – a hybrid war is underway, the situation is changing, and we must respond.”