Russia’s Justice Ministry has written to warn some social media users that they risk legal penalties for failing to mark reposts of material originally created by so-called “foreign agents” as such, two lawyers separately reported earlier this month.
In December 2023, lawyer Viktor Drozdov reposted an article published by The Moscow Times, which had been deemed a “foreign agent” by the Justice Ministry a month beforehand, on his Telegram channel. Earlier this month, Drozdov received a letter from the Justice Ministry warning him to “rectify the violation by 27 September 2024” or face a fine.
According to the letter, Drozdov had failed to add the disclaimer which, according to Russia’s law on external influence, must accompany all content posted by foreign agents. His reposting of a foreign agent had, therefore, violated Russian law even though Drozdov himself has not been named a “foreign agent” by the government.
Russia’s foreign agent law was adopted in 2012 and though it initially only applied to registered non-governmental organisations operating in Russia, over the last decade its remit has been gradually extended to apply to media organisations, individuals and to organisations without official legal registration, meaning the Kremlin can effectively deem anyone or anything a foreign agent, a term which complicates day-to-day life for anyone it is applied to, not least the requirement to place a prominent disclaimer on any publication or online post warning readers that the material is written by a foreign agent.
In the summer of 2023, the law was further adapted, making non-foreign agents liable for prosecution for “assisting” foreign agents in circulating their materials. The Justice Ministry now maintains that all content authored by a foreign agent, whether posted by them or not, must be accompanied by the text: “This message (material) was created and (or) disseminated by a foreign mass media outlet performing the functions of a foreign agent and (or) a Russian legal entity performing the functions of a foreign agent.”
The “foreign agent” disclaimer used by indepedent media outlet Mediazona until spring 2022. Photo: Mediazona
Another lawyer, Roman Melnichenko, reported receiving a similar demand from the Justice Ministry after he reposted a recording from SOTAvision, an independent news Telegram channel that has been deemed both a “foreign agent” and an “undesirable organisation”.
Both Melnichenko and Drozdov’s warnings were signed by Roman Tsyganov, the director of the Justice Ministry’s Department of National Interests from External Influence.
