The Ministry of Justice included in the register of “foreign agents” former deputy of the Novosibirsk City Council Helga Pirogova and actor Anatoly White. This is reported on the department's website.
The updated list of “foreign agents” also included the editor of the Agency Andrei Zatirko, a specialist on the Caucasus Denis Sokolov and the editor-in-chief of the Caucasian Knot Grigory Shvedov.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Bely, Zatirko and Pirogova opposed the “special military operation in Ukraine.” Shvedov disseminated materials from “foreign agents” and “unreliable information” about the decisions of the Russian authorities. Sokolov called for “actions the results of which could lead to a violation of the territorial integrity” of Russia and supported the Ukrainian army.
Denis Sokolov is the coordinator of the “Civil Council”. This organization is recruiting Russians into the Ukrainian army. Actor Anatoly Bely spoke out against the war in Ukraine and left Russia in the summer of 2022.
Helga Pirogova was deprived of her deputy mandate in the summer of 2023. She is accused of spreading “fakes” about the army (Part 1 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Initially, the case was opened for a tweet about the funeral of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine; later, Pirogova’s interview with the Dozhd TV channel about her criminal case and departure from Russia was added to the materials. In August last year, Pirogov was put on the wanted list.
Grigory Shvedov has led the Caucasian Knot since its founding in 2001. The publication, declared a “foreign agent” in November 2021, covers news from the regions of the Russian North Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In January 2017, the speaker of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov, threatened the journalist with “pulling out his teeth and shortening his tongue.”