The Ministry of Justice added journalists Asya Kazantsev and Ilya Barabanov to the list of “foreign agents”.
The updated register of the department also includes human rights activist Ivan Astashin, Pskov municipal deputy from Yabloko Nikolai Kuzmin, journalist and creator of the telegram channel “All Quiet on the ZzzzzZazedny Front” Ivan Filippov, as well as INOAGENT AVK LLC , which was founded by journalist Andrei Karaulov, previously recognized as a “foreign agent.”
According to the Ministry of Justice, they all opposed the war in Ukraine and “discredited” the Russian authorities. At the same time, Astashin “called for participation in uncoordinated rallies and pickets,” and Kazantseva took part in events organized by “foreign agents.”
In 2012, Ivan Astashin was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security colony in the case of the Autonomous Combat Terrorist Organization (ABTO), but the term was soon reduced to nine years and nine months. The prosecution alleged that he and eight other people set fire to the building of the FSB Directorate for the South-Western District of Moscow, a police department, cars, several retail outlets and a residential building where migrants worked. According to the court, ABTO participants planned to carry out a terrorist attack on the thermal power plant in Perovo.
At the end of January, Asya Kazantseva left Russia. Shortly before this, State Duma deputy from the LDPR Andrei Lugovoy reposted a message to his Telegram channel with the personal details of the journalist and a call to “convey” to her that “betrayal of one’s country is the worst sin.”