Russia’s Justice Ministry on Friday labeled the exiled news outlet Novaya Vkladka a “foreign agent” on accusations that it openly opposes Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Novaya Vkladka was founded by a group of Russian journalists shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Led by the Latvia-based journalist Mikhail Danilovich, the outlet maintains a network of freelance reporters both inside and outside Russia and focuses its coverage on regions outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.
“Foreign agent” designations were also handed to Misra TV, a multimedia project focused on Caucasian and Middle Eastern affairs, Dozor v Volgograde, a regional activist project that monitors local corruption and civil rights violations, as well as Switzerland for All, a Russian-language civic initiative.
Alex Goldfarb, a friend of the poisoned ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko who runs a New York-based foundation supporting Russian political activists, and veteran journalist and poet Yan Shenkman were also labeled “foreign agents” on Friday.
The Justice Ministry accused all six designees of opposing the war in Ukraine, spreading “unreliable information” about the Russian government and interacting with other “foreign agents,” as well as “undesirable” organizations.
Earlier on Friday, Russia’s Constitutional Court turned down the latest legal challenge against Russia’s “foreign agent” law brought by a group of designated politicians who argued that the legislation is used to suppress freedom of expression.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the law does not infringe on the rights of citizens since they can contest their “foreign agent” status in court.
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