Foreign agent Friday: Sergey Guriev, Gennady Gudkov, Lev Gershenzon, nixelpixel, WWF

Russia’s Ministry of Justice included the Free Buryatia Foundation, economist Sergey Guriev, former head of Yandex.News and creator of The True Story aggregator Lev Gershenzon, politician Gennady Gudkov, blogger Veronika Vodvud (nixelpixel), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), as well as Vladivostok journalist from Daniil Gubarev to its register of “foreign agents, the agency’s website says.

Guriev was formally included into the register helping create and disseminating materials of “foreign agents”, as well as for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

Gershenzon was added to the list for creating a news aggregator called The True Story, which only includes news from media outlets that are oppressed in Russia. Same as Guriev, he also spoke out against the war in Ukraine and took part in the creation and distribution of materials by “foreign agents”.

Gudkov was added to the register for making negative statements about the Russian military, as well as for calling to supply Ukraine with weapons. He also participated in the creation of materials by “foreign agents” and, according to the Ministry of Justice, disseminated “inaccurate” information about the state bodies of the Russian Federation.

Vodwood, in addition to speaking out against the war in Ukraine, “discredited the ideas of serving the Fatherland, formed a negative attitude towards military service, and spoke negatively about Russia’s Armed Forces.” Moreover, the ministry believes that the blogger was engaged in LGBT “propaganda”.

Gubarev “distributed materials created by foreign agents to an unlimited circle of people.”

The WWF, according to the Ministry of Justice, “under the guise of protecting nature <…> tried to influence the decisions of the executive and legislative authorities of the Russian Federation,” and also hindered the development of industrial projects. In addition, the fund’s employees disseminated negative information about the decisions made by Russian government bodies.

The Free Buryatia Foundation was added to the register for calling for actions that “may lead to a violation of Russia’s territorial integrity.” The organisation is also claimed to have distributed materials by “foreign agents” and “inaccurate information” about the activities of Russia’s authorities.