IStories, Süddeutsche Zeitung: Roskomnadzor has been collecting info to declare Novaya-Europe’s Ilya Azar, Novaya Gazeta, BBC in Russian ‘foreign agents’

IStories and Süddeutsche Zeitung have published a joint investigation, using leaked emails by a sister company of Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censorship agency.

Cyberpartisans, a Belarusian team of hackers, managed to gain access to the emails last year. This resulted in a list of 804 names of individuals becoming available to journalists. Information on those people was collected in order to potentially declare them “foreign agents”; 139 of 804 have already been assigned this status.

The candidates to the list include:

• politicians Grigory Yavlinsky, Mikhail Kasyanov, Valery Rashkin, Oksana Dmitrieva, Maxim Reznik, Roman Yuneman, Gennady Gudkov and Dmitry Gudkov;

• economists Vladislav Inozemtsev and Natalya Zubarevich;

• political scientists Gleb Pavlovsky and Abbas Gallyamov;

• musicians Maxim Pokrovsky (Nogu Svelo) and Vera Musaelyan (Aloe Vera);

• journalists Arkady Babchenko, Andrey Loshak, Ilya Azar, Irina Khalip (last two of Novaya Gazeta Europe);

• media outlets Novaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta Europe, 7x7 Horizontal Russia, BBC in Russian, Baza, Shkulev Media Holding, Sota, ChTD, Helpdesk.Media;

• Chicken Curry and Redaktsia YouTube channels;

• Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT).

The IStories website has the full list of names.

In addition, the watchdog also monitors the so-called “leaders of public opinion”. These include 472 individuals with a description of the type of activity and links to all available social media accounts. Notable entries are stand-up comedians Danila Poperechny and Alexander Dolgopolov, journalist Ilya Krasilshchik, and Zemfira, a singer.

Vladimir Putin signed a law regulating the activities of “foreign agents‘’ on 5 December. Content produced by ”foreign agents" is now considered information that is harmful to the health and development of children. Such media must be marked 18+ when sold or displayed. In bookstores, kiosks and retail outlets, they can only be distributed in sealed opaque packaging, and are completely banned from children-related institutions.

In addition, “foreign agents” are no longer allowed to teach in educational institutions, insure deposits, conclude contracts for military service, and be members of election commissions. Being declared a “foreign agent” is also a legal excuse to dismiss an individual from work.