The Ministry of Justice has released a report on the activities of «foreign agents». The report appeared on the telegram channel of the State Duma commission to investigate interference in internal affairs, the human rights project OVD-Info drew attention to the publication.
Last year, a law came into force that consolidated the of all «foreign agents» into a single registry and allowed to assign them status without funding from abroad; at the same time, a non-public list of «individuals affiliated with foreign agents» appeared.
In its report, the Ministry of Justice reported for the first time that as of December 31, 2022, the new register contained information about 861 individuals «affiliated with foreign agents.»
The agency writes that the activities of these people «mainly manifested themselves during the preparation and conduct of elections of officials, deputies of legislative bodies and municipalities.»
The Ministry of Justice reported that it had organized large-scale checks for links of candidates with «foreign agents». In total, about 9.8 thousand documents submitted to the election commissions and more than 76 thousand candidates were checked, the report says. As a result, the Ministry of Justice established the involvement of one candidate in the Novgorod movement «Voice», declared a «foreign agent».
«Foreign Agent» and/or affiliated. Why you can be in the register of the Ministry of Justice under the new law