Russia has added seven people including two Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists to its long and growing list of “foreign agents,” a move RFE/RL’s president said was part of a “brutal assault on independent media.”
The Russian Justice Ministry said on January 31 that the seven were designated for participating in foreign media platforms and in some cases for what it claimed was the dissemination of "false information" about Russia's electoral system. It did not provide evidence.
The broader accusation tying all seven together was what the ministry said was their opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine, which is raging nearly three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion in February 2022. His government tolerates no criticism of the war and has used its increasingly restrictive “foreign agent” legislation as one of many instruments to suppress dissent.
The new designees include Dmitry Sukharev, a journalist with Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit; and Andrei Novashov, a contributor to RFE/RL’s Russian Service and North Caucasus Service. Both live outside Russia. The others are Elizaveta Fokht and Ilya Abishev of the BBC Russian Service; Meduza contributor Vladimir Rayevsky; educator, writer, and blogger Dima Zitser; and Anton Suvorkin, a video blogger covering Russian show business.
Russia introduced the "foreign agent" label in 2012 and has expanded legislation pertaining to the designation since then. Kremlin critics, rights defenders, and Western governments say the Russian state uses it as a tool to persecute independent journalists, media outlets, activists, and civil society groups.
"The designation of RFE/RL journalists as foreign agents is the latest evidence of Russia's brutal assault on independent media,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement on January 31. “Despite the Kremlin's attempts to criminalize freedom of speech at home and abroad, our brave journalists will not be intimidated."
Three correspondents for Current Time, the Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE/RL -- Iryna Romaliyska, Oleksiy Prodayvoda, and Oryna Fedorovykh -- were labeled foreign agents earlier in January. Current Time, RFE/RL’s Russian Service, and several other RFE/RL Russian-language news services were designated in 2017.