Following claim letter from RT, Feelosophy Store releases new t-shirt in support of Meduza and other ‘foreign agents’

The Moscow-based clothing brand Feelosophy Store has released a new “foreign agent” themed t-shirt in support of Meduza and other media organizations and individuals the Russian Justice Ministry has blacklisted. The new design comes in neon yellow and features the word “inoagent” — the shortened form of inostranny agent, which means “foreign agent” in Russian.

As previously reported by Meduza, Feelosophy Store received a claim letter from the state-controlled television network RT (Russia Today) in October, which demanded that they stop selling “counterfeit” merchandise and pay RT half a million rubles ($6,700) in compensation for “significant financial damages.”

This came after Feelosophy Store collaborated with Meduza to launch a line of “foreign agent” themed merchandise. As it turns out, RT trademarked the phrase “inostranny agent” in 2020 and has been selling its own line of “foreign agent” merch since 2018.

Following RT’s complaint, Meduza had to pull Feelosophy Store’s “foreign agent” t-shirt from its online shop. But fear not! The new design is now available for purchase and Feelosophy Store plans to donate 30 percent of the proceeds from the sale of each t-shirt to Meduza.

Georgy Saribekyan, Feelosophy Store founder

“For seven years we’ve been selling only Russian clothing brands, we support a Russian manufacturer, including during the pandemic — so it’s especially unpleasant that RT is moving against real patriots. We released a t-shirt because we read and love Meduza. RT’s actions didn’t make us happy, but they didn’t scare us either. The situation is cringe-worthy, you can’t say otherwise. I still hope this is some kind of mistake or accident, and not a planned action. We would like the buyers of [the merch from this collaboration] to love their neighbors, Russia and Meduza.”

Story by Natasha Kondrashova

Translation by Eilish Hart