UPDATED: Russian federal censor asks Moscow court to fine investigative outlet The Insider for refusing to carry ‘foreign agent’ disclosure

Update: Based on information from the news agency TASS, Meduza originally reported that Roskomnadzor seeks a court order to block The Insider. TASS later corrected its story to reflect that Roskomnadzor seeks only a noncompliance fine.

Russia’s censorship agency (Roskomnadzor) has appealed to a Moscow court to fine the investigative outlet The Insider over its failure to include “foreign agent” disclaimers on its website, reports state news agency TASS.

As first reported by Mediazona, citing the official website of the Moscow courts, administrative charges were brought against The Insider for violating the law on “foreign agents” (under Russian Administrative Code Article 19.34.1, section 1). The Tagansky District Court registered the case on Wednesday.

• The Insider is best known as Bellingcat‘s investigative partner in Russia. The two groups have jointly published multiple bombshell investigations about Russian intelligence operations at home and around the world.
• The Russian Justice Ministry blacklisted The Insider as “foreign agent” on July 23, 2021. In turn, The Insider‘s editor-in-chief Roman Dobrokhotov stated that the publication would continue to operate as normal and would not comply with Russian law, as it is based in Latvia.