Deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation demand from the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation the removal of the foreign agent status of Moscow deputy mayor Pavel Ivanov (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), since he does not fit this definition “without reason”. One of the authors of the appeal, State Duma deputy Denis Parfenov, told socialbites.ca about this. According to him, Ivanov could have been given the status of a foreign agent to prevent him from participating in the upcoming Moscow City Duma elections.
“Foreign agent status should be granted to individuals who act in the interests of foreign powers and receive some form of funding from them. With Pavel Ivanov, the situation is exactly the opposite. He was responsible for organizing the collection of humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Lugansk for a long time; He visited there several times. Party worker, Central Committee candidate, current municipal deputy from the party. It does not fall under this status in any way. It’s understandable why they wanted to put that label on him. He was supposed to run as a candidate in the Central Administrative District in the upcoming Moscow City Duma elections. It is obvious that some people do not like the very bold political line he has followed in recent years. It seems they want to continue diluting the electoral process. Therefore, I think he was given this status and therefore excluded from the election race,” Parfenov said.
The deputy noted that it is now difficult to predict the decision of the leadership of the Ministry of Justice, but he personally continues to hope for a positive outcome.
“The authorities are guided by some instantaneous assessment of the moment and distribute a rather unpleasant label left and right, giving it an ugly status. We believe that they acted in a completely arbitrary manner, regardless of the far-reaching political consequences in this case. I run the risk of seeming like a naive person in your eyes, but I still dare to hope that not everyone in power is completely rotten. Therefore, we will see how the minister will act. The day after tomorrow we will have our nomination conference. Unfortunately, due to this status it will not be possible to nominate Pavel, but we will continue to support him. “Maybe once the candidacy phase has passed and the authorities realize that they have achieved their goals, this status will be removed from him,” the politician thinks.
Parfenov also answered the question of why the party did not support the former Mundapist Yevgeny Stupin (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) and other communist foreign agents – these are “different cases.”
“After all, do not forget that Evgeniy first tried to be expelled from the party and only then received the status of a foreign agent. In Ivanov’s case, he is a current member of the party and current municipal deputy. It’s basically in pretty good shape. Therefore, different situations and different approaches emerge,” he concluded.
Kommersant newspaper reported that deputies of the State Duma of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Sergei Obukhov and Denis Parfenov asked the Ministry of Justice to consider the possibility of removing Pavel Ivanov from the register of foreign agents. For the first time, a parliamentary party defended its colleague with this status.
The Ministry of Justice included Pavel Ivanov in the list of foreign agents on May 31. This decision in the documents is justified by the fact that Ivanov repeatedly organized and attended unauthorized public events, distributed false information about the decisions and policies of Russian authorities, and materials created by foreign agents.
It was previously known that Ekaterina Duntsova (recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent). decided to challenge foreign agent status
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Source: Gazeta

Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.