Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist popular on YouTube, says she was included to the “media foreign agents” list for receiving salary from Echo of Moscow, a radio station, and the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences, as well as receiving a one-time payment from Vladimir Potanin’s foundation, a royalty check from AST, a book publisher, and getting paid by the Strelka Institute.
”You will be surprised, but the Russian law implies the so-called “indirect foreign funding.” This means that if you receive money from a Russian source which had received money from a foreign source earlier, you will be considered to be sponsored by a foreign source as well,” Schulmann said.
Schulmann’s co-presenter Maksim Kurnikov who used to work for Echo of Moscow before said the radio station received no foreign funding. “Well, the Ministry of Justice thinks otherwise,” Schulmann responded sarcastically.
She also said that the Ministry of Justice considers her to be involved in political activities for being a political scientist and hosting a politics show on YouTube.
The Ministry of Justice has already filed a ticket against Schulmann for not using a “foreign agent” disclaimer while posting online.
Echo of Moscow was taken off the air by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censorship agency, on 1 March. It was owned by Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of Gazprom, a state-owned energy giant. Shulmann was declared “foreign agent” on 15 April.
