Russia’s notorious “foreign agent” law, which for years has been used by the Kremlin to intimidate would-be dissenters into silence, has left many of those it has targeted as virtual outcasts from society; unable to get a job, afraid of sullying the reputations of their friends, and with exile often appearing to be the sole solution. First introduced in 2012, just months after Vladimir Putin began his third presidential term following a wave of mass anti-government protests, the foreign agents law initially targeted organisations that received funding from outside the country, but has been expanded several times over the years and can now be applied to media outlets and private citizens, even in cases when there’s no evidence of overseas funding. “Foreign agents” cannot stand as candidates in federal, regional or local elections, cannot teach in schools or state-funded universities, or receive royalty payments or income from renting and selling property. Indeed, a 2022 amendment to the law expanded the criteria of what constituted a “foreign agent” to anybody who voiced criticism of the Kremlin’s policies. Since then there have been scores of new additions to the foreign agent register, which is updated by the Justice Ministry each week and now has over 900 names on it. While the list unsurprisingly includes a number of high-profile Kremlin critics such as former Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov and Oleg Orlov, the chairman of Russian human rights group Memorial, hundreds of lesser-known journalists and activists have found their names added to the list in recent years as the Kremlin’s determination to silence any dissenting voice, however small, has grown stronger. Although many of those labelled “foreign agents” have left the country to live in exile, others continue to live in Russia albeit with their rights severely curtailed — for example, “foreign agents” cannot stand as candidates in federal, regional or local elections, cannot teach in schools or state-funded universities, or receive royalty payments or income from renting and selling property.
via Novaya Gazeta: Enemies of the state How being branded a ‘foreign agent’ affects those who stay in Russia
