Russia is in the midst of the largest crackdown on the free press and political dissent since the Soviet era, using a vague legal tool: a law regulating the activities of so-called foreign agents.
The trends driving it are numerous, and have been in place for years. But the past 18 months have seen an extraordinary increase in pressure applied on independent journalism by the state.
“It is not about receiving money from abroad,” said Sonya Groisman, 27, a reporter who was added to the foreign agent list after her outlet, Proekt, was disbanded after being labeled “undesirable.”The first targets in this assault on independent, critical journalism in Russia were legal entities — i.e., entire newsrooms. But recently, the state has taken to applying the label to individual journalists, too. Groisman was one of those.
The Kremlin press office told NBC News that those who are labeled foreign agents are not actually legally limited from working as journalists by law, and they have the right to appeal the designation in court. The way it works is simple: every Friday, the Ministry of Justice updates a public list of “foreign agents” published on its website. There are around 90 organizations and individuals on the list now. The size of the list has nearly doubled over the past month, with almost every major independent outlet now featured.
“It is not the Russian state that drives you out of business, you have to kill your own business yourself,” Kovalev said. “You have to hire a lawyer to deal with the paperwork, an accountant to deal with the financial filings. And now, when you have individual people declared foreign agents, you see how devastating this actually is.”
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