- A new enlarged rule on “foreign agents” in Russia takes effect Thursday.
- The 2012 law on Foreign Agents was passed after public protests against Putin’s return to the presidency.
- It compelled political parties receiving foreign funds to register as foreign agents.
A new enlarged rule on “foreign agents” in Russia takes effect Thursday, signaling a growing crackdown on free expression and opposition under President Vladimir Putin.
It’s additional proof of Russia’s intention to root out what it perceives as Western liberal principles, coming the same week as a bill expanding a ban on LGBT “promotion.”
The 2012 law on Foreign Agents, passed after public protests against Putin’s return to the presidency, compelled political parties receiving foreign funds to register as foreign agents and comply to harsh rules and limitations.
Since then, this law has been modified, tightening Russia’s grip on civil society during the previous decade. From Thursday, this term includes people who have “received support and (or) are under foreign influence.”
Reading the statute further doesn’t clarify much. Foreign “support” includes organizational, methodological, scientific, and technical assistance. “Influence” is defined as “coercion, persuasion, or other tactics.”
Freelance Russian writer Konstantin Von Eggert lives in Lithuania. These laws are part of what he terms “Putin’s oppressive regime” and are meant to “scare and immobilize.”
Once laws are implemented uniformly, it may be easy to game the system, he said. You don’t know if laws are “applied randomly or readily.”
Andrey Soldatov, an exiled Russian journalist known for his security agency investigations, claims this is part of a crackdown due to Russia’s losses in Ukraine.
“You can’t explain why Kherson was abandoned,” he argues. “Fear works best.”
Since the beginning of the Kremlin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, free expression and democratic liberties in Russia have been eroding. Russia blocked Facebook, Western news sites, and independent media days after the invasion. Thousands of peaceful protesters were arrested.
The administration criminalized “deliberately misleading” material regarding the Russian military in March. The maximum sentence is 15 years. CNN and other Western news organizations ceased Russian broadcasts.
The defending of “traditional values,” one of Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine, has also been used to justify further persecution at home. Putin said the US and the West “sought to demolish our historic values and force on us their false principles that would corrode us” in his speech on February 24, the day the conflict began.
The speaker of Russia’s lower house, the State Duma, said a new bill expanding a 2013 ban on LGBT “promotion,” pedophilia, and gender reassignment to minors and adults will “guard our children, the future of our nation from the darkness pushed by the U.S. and European states.” Human Rights Watch claimed the law will stifle free speech, well-being, and security.
The increased foreign agent statute gives Russia a more potent instrument to influence its citizens. Any person or organization labeled a foreign agent (a word with Soviet overtones in Russia) will be prohibited from many educational posts, public events, and state funding.
The law prohibits minors from receiving foreign agent-published materials. State Duma says it must be designated 18+ and sold in sealed opaque packaging.
According to official media, the Russian Justice Ministry will publish the personal data of designated foreign agents, including names, birth dates, tax ID numbers, and insurance account numbers (similar to a social security number).
Soldatov fears the law may target state workers. “If you’re an ordinary guy and you’re on this list, it’s no big deal,” he says. If you’re a “doctor, teacher, or university professor,” you’re in severe danger because you lose your job.
Von Eggert feels Putin’s July move to broaden the law is futile. “They missed the time, and those who were truly dangerous are in jail or elsewhere. They threaten whom? No idea.”
With Russia’s efforts in Ukraine faltering, he sees the law as a “weakness, not strength.”
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