Foreign agents

Putin Is Seeing ‘Foreign Agents’ Everywhere

Since Monday, Russians who post links to foreign media content can be branded “foreign agents” and systematically, and legally, harassed by the country’s fearsome bureaucracy and law-enforcement system. The law, quickly passed by parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin, comes a little more than a month after Maria Butina, the gun advocate convicted in the U.S., returned to Moscow after spending 15 months in a U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

Russia had already had a foreign agent law since 2012. It was used against nongovernmental organizations that received foreign funding. These groups were banned from participating in "political activities” (such as election monitoring), subjected to exhaustive government audits and forced to accompany all their external communications with a humiliating disclosure of their “foreignness.” Many nonprofits have folded under government pressure. Dozens of complaints about the law have been lodged with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, but it is yet to rule on them.

A small number of media organizations — for now, just those funded by the U.S. Congress, such as Voice of America and Radio Liberty — have been designated as foreign agents, too.

The new law makes it possible to apply the foreign agent label to individuals, specifically to those who spread content from media or other organizations determined to be foreign agents and who receive any kind of funding from a foreign or foreign-financed source.

Foreign agents

Russia’s New ‘Foreign Agent’ Law, Explained

Russia has passed legislation that will allow individual journalists and bloggers to be labeled “foreign agents,” a move that critics say will tighten curbs on the media and free speech.

At least nine news organizations funded by the U.S. government have been designated “foreign agents” under the original version of the law since it was signed by President Vladimir Putin in 2017 as a retaliation to America’s decision to restrict Kremlin-run media.
Who can be labeled a “foreign agent”?

— The law applies to any individual who distributes information on the internet and receives money from foreign sources.

— Also, any individual who distributes foreign media can be labeled a foreign agent.

— The State Duma has confirmed that both foreigners and Russians may be labeled “foreign agents” under the new law.
What happens to so-called “foreign agents”?

— All material published by an individual who receives money from abroad — including social media posts — will be labeled as having been distributed by a foreign agent. This label will be added by the individual or by the website on which his or her content appears, and not by the government.

— “Foreign agents” will be required to create legal entities in Russia with which the Justice Ministry can interact.