A unified register of individuals associated with ″foreign agents″ is being created in Russia | News from Germany about Russia | DW

Russia will create a unified register of individuals declared “foreign agents”, “mass media – “foreign agents”, as well as those associated with “foreign agents”. The State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation approved the relevant amendments to the so-called “Dima Yakovlev Law”, prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by foreigners in response to anti-corruption sanctions, Russian media reported on Wednesday, March 9, citing the State Duma database.

The register will include employees and members of organizations declared “foreign agents”, founders, managers and employees of foreign media – “foreign agents”, as well as non-profit organizations and public associations performing the functions of “foreign agents”.

The list will also include people who, in the opinion of the Russian authorities, are politically active and received money or property assistance from “foreign agents.”

About 400 “foreign agents” in Russia

Keeping the register will be entrusted to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Currently, the department does not maintain any registers of individuals affiliated with “foreign agents”.

In Russia, about 400 organizations and individuals are recognized as “foreign agents”. Individuals designated as “media-foreign agents” are included in the same register as organizations with this status.

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation must also maintain a separate register of individuals – “foreign agents”, but at present there is no data on persons with such a status.

See also:

• “Foreign agent” – the Kremlin’s label for NGOs and the media

  Political activity is a flexible concept

  Non-profit organizations, by law, are included in the register of “foreign agents” if they are engaged in political activities in Russia with foreign money. At the same time, the profile of NGOs included in the list of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation makes it clear: the range of their activities is very wide, and the focus of many of them is not associated with politics.

• 

  “Foreign agent” – the Kremlin’s label for NGOs and the media

  In which regions of the Russian Federation are the most NPOs recognized as “foreign agents”

  DW has calculated in which regions of Russia NGOs-“foreign agents” are most often found. There are few surprises: Moscow is ahead. St. Petersburg follows the capital by a wide margin. Ekaterinburg ranks third in terms of the number of non-profit organizations that are “foreign agents”.

• 

  “Foreign agent” – the Kremlin’s label for NGOs and the media

  What happened to the recognized “foreign agents” of NGOs

  Since 2012, 200 organizations have been included in the register of “foreign agents” of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Today, 75 of them continue their work. It is very difficult to challenge the status of a “foreign agent”, and new rules and restrictions for such organizations appear almost every year. Most of these regulations slow down the work of the commercial sector and force organizations to stop working, human rights activists are sure.

• 

  “Foreign agent” – the Kremlin’s label for NGOs and the media

  Any citizen of the Russian Federation can be recognized as a media “foreign agent”

  In December 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing individuals to be classified as media “foreign agents”. Among the first citizens of the Russian Federation to receive this status are Lev Ponomarev, the founder of the For Human Rights movement, Daria Apakhonchich, a St. Petersburg activist, and individual journalists from the Pskov Guberniya, 7×7, and Radio Liberty publications.

  Author: Elena Barysheva, Mikhail Bushuev, Elena Gunkel