Four protocols were drawn up against Viktor Vorobyov, deputy of the Komi State Council from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, on the absence of a “foreign agent” marking in publications (part 4 of article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The materials were received by the Syktyvkar City Court of Komi, Kommersant paid attention to them.
Two protocols on Vorobyov will be considered on June 5, two more on June 21. According to Kommersant, he is charged with the absence of a “foreign agent” badge on the forms of deputy requests.
Vorobiev explained to the publication that he did not mark the deputy's requests, which he sent to the Komi prosecutor's office and the republican department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In his opinion, such documents are not subject to the legislation on «foreign agents».
“The right to a deputy’s request is one of the guarantees of deputy activity, which is enshrined in the law of the republic “On the status of a deputy”, and the request itself is its form and therefore cannot be recognized as media material,” Vorobyov commented on the protocols drawn up for him.
At the end of May, Mediazona found out that Daria Besedina, a Moscow City Duma deputy from Yabloko, had filed three similar protocols on the absence of a “foreign agent” label. According to Kommersant, they are also connected with deputy requests.
The publication adds that in connection with the tightening of the legislation on foreign agents and the introduction in December last year of criminal liability for its repeated violation (Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code), Vorobyov and Besedina may face early termination of their parliamentary powers. An unnamed Kommersant interlocutor in the Komi State Council called such a scenario realistic.
“In case of repeated violation and prosecution, there is a risk of initiating a criminal case. In this case, we will be forced to initiate the issue of depriving Vorobyov of his mandate, ”a Kommersant source said.
The Ministry of Justice declared Besedina a “foreign agent” in January 2023, and Vorobyov in April 2022. The deputy of the Moscow City Duma, according to the department, “participated in the creation and distribution of materials of foreign agents”, “spoke out against a special military operation” and “propaganda of LGBT relations”. Vorobyov got into the register for the return of money for a train ticket in London and a fee from Memorial.