Sergei Mironov, head of the A Just Russia – For Truth faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation and Alexei Nechaev, head of the New People faction, proposed to change the legislation on “foreign agents”. “The procedure for inclusion in the register should be changed so that the decision is made by the court, and not by officials,” Mironov wrote on his Twitter on Tuesday, October 19.
A similar point of view was expressed by Nechaev, noting in an interview with TASS that in Russia “there is a presumption of innocence, and now people, the media, who are recognized as foreign agents, must go to court and prove that they are not foreign agents.” Nechaev believes that, in particular, with regard to individuals “the scale of law enforcement has gone beyond reasonable banks.”
The reaction of the State Duma deputies followed the decision of the Ministry of Justice, adopted on October 15, to include the publications Rosbalt and the Republic in the register of media “foreign agents”.
The SRs intend to prepare a bill
Later, Mironov said that their faction intends to discuss “options for adjusting the legislation with the expert community” and will prepare “specific legislative proposals in this regard.”
In an interview with the online portal Meduza, the head of the Just Russia noted that “it is necessary to clarify the concept of political activity in the law, which is now being interpreted as broadly as possible.” “I think that in general, the decision on the status of a foreign agent should be transferred to the judicial plane,” Mironov stressed.
Almost nine dozen “foreign agents”
The law on media “foreign agents” was adopted in Russia in 2017. According to him, any media outlet that receives funding or property from abroad can become a “foreign agent”. The legislation obliges mass media “foreign agents” to establish a Russian legal entity within a month after being entered in the register to submit financial statements to the Ministry of Justice.
At the moment, the “Register of Foreign Mass Media Performing the Functions of a Foreign Agent” maintained by the Russian Ministry of Justice contains data on 88 legal entities and individuals.
On September 14, more than 150 Russian media outlets, NGOs and charitable organizations launched a petition to repeal the law on “foreign agents”, which has already collected more than 180,000 signatures. The Russian authorities have already stated that the law can be clarified, but not canceled.
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