The Ministry of Justice has included the former Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Philip Pinchas Goldschmidt, on the list of «foreign agents». This was reported on the website of the department.
The reason for including Goldschmidt in the register, according to the department, was that he «distributed false information about the decisions made by public authorities of the Russian Federation and their policies» and opposed wars in Ukraine.
In June 2022, it became known that Goldschmidt left Russia after the authorities demanded to publicly support the war in Ukraine. According to his sister-in-law, the rabbi himself was also involved in fundraising for refugees. David Yushuvaev replaced Goldschmidt as Chief Rabbi of Moscow.
In addition to the rabbi, on June 30, the list of “foreign agents” included Paper and Sota.vision publications, musician Boris Grebenshchikov, journalists Andrei Karaulov and Alexei Gorpinchenko, Moscow City Duma deputy Mikhail Timonov, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow «Yabloko» Andrei Morev, as well as the autonomous non-profit educational organization «The Anglo-American School of Moscow».
Earlier, another religious figure, Telo Tulku Rinpoche (Erdni Ombadykov), who held the post Supreme Lama of Kalmykia. Due to being on the list of “foreign agents”, he was forced to leave the post.