The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow registered the materials of the administrative case against the independent research organization Levada Center. Mediazona drew attention to this information in the database of the capital's courts.
According to the file of the case, the protocol at the ANO Yuri Levada Analytical Center was drawn up under the article on the non-submission or untimely submission of the necessary information by the «foreign agent» to the authorized body (Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The date of the court session has not yet been set.
The Ministry of Justice included the sociological organization in the register of «foreign agents» in September 2016. The agency made this decision after the law was amended to equate the conduct of opinion polls with political activity. Such activities were recognized as “aimed at forming social and political views.”
A month later, the court for the first time fined Levada Center 300,000 rubles under the article on violation of the law on “foreign agents”. Later, the organization appealed to the Constitutional Court with a complaint about the norms of the law, which allowed the Levada Center to be included in the list of the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the court refused to consider the application. After that, the research NGO applied to the ECtHR.