On March 23, the Russian Ministry of Justice updated the register of foreign agents. Message on the department’s website. The list includes five individuals and a public association.
Blogger Ilya Varlamov, human rights activist Pavel Chikov, social activist and writer Svetlana Lada-Rus (Peunova), political scientist Ruslan Aisin, journalist Bogdan Bakaleyko and Parni Plus/Parni+ association were announced as new foreign agents.
Usually, the Justice Department announces the expansion of the foreign agent’s registry on Fridays, but now it’s been done on Thursday. In mid-February, the ministry stopped announcing the new members of the roster and resumed replenishment only on March 10. There are a total of 565 foreign agents in the combined registry of the Ministry of Justice.
Varlamov and Chikov “spread misinformation about decisions and policies made by public authorities,” as noted on the agency’s website. At the same time, the blogger received funding from foreign sources, and the human rights activist helped distribute materials from other foreign agents, according to the Justice Department.
Pavel Chikov, a lawyer and former head of the Agora international human rights group, gave an interview to journalist Yuri Dudyu (known as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) (including the list of foreign agents) a month ago. In it, he said that he had been living outside of Russia since the spring of last year and has yet to return, as he saw “no reason for a safe return.”
Svetlana Lada-Rus (Peunova) “called for the fight against the existing state power of the Russian Federation, opposed the special military operation in Ukraine, formed a negative attitude towards military service and the civil service in general.” The Justice Department noted that the woman now lives abroad and is on federal and international wanted lists.
In the past, Peunova is the founder and leader of the Volya party, which was recognized as an extremist and was purged by the court in 2016. In addition, she opened the Path to the Sun Traditional Medicine Center in Samara in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as many other similar establishments. Some were eventually accepted as denominations. In Russia, a criminal case was opened against him for fraud and intentional grievous bodily harm.
The Ministry of Justice also believes that Aisin and Bakaleyko were involved in spreading misinformation about the authorities’ decisions, criticizing military special operations, and popularizing materials by other foreign agents.
According to the ministry, the Parni Plus/Parni+ association carried out LGBT propaganda and distributed messages and materials created by foreign agents.
In addition, early March 23, the Basmanny Court in Moscow arrested in absentia blogger Maxim Katz (known in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent) for spreading fake news about the Russian military. “The period of detention is calculated as two months from the moment of detention or extradition in Russia,” said court spokeswoman Ekaterina Buravtsova.
Katz, who moved to Israel after the start of the special operation, has also been on the list of foreign agents since July 2022. The Ministry of Justice claims that Ukraine is among the sources of foreign financing for its activities. Since October last year, Katz has also been wanted for a crime article.