Russia updates its ‘foreign agent’ list

The Russian Justice Ministry has designated politician and mathematician Mikhail Lobanov, public figure and businessman Leonid Nevzlin, Moscow City Council member Yevgeny Stupin, ex-local councillor Vitaly Bovar, ex-head of the Perm office of Memorial Robert Latypov, lawyer of the Russian LGBT network Alexander Belik, scientific journalist Ilya Kolmanovsky, the Conscious Refusal Movement, as well as the Action community centre as “foreign agents”.

Mikhail Lobanov is an ex-candidate for the lower house of Russia’s parliament and an associate professor at Moscow State University. He lives in Russia and opposes the war in Ukraine. In May, his home was searched in connection with his participation in the Congress of People’s Deputies, a Russian opposition event organised by Ilya Ponomarev. In February, unidentified people painted the letter Z on the front door of his flat.

Leonid Nevzlin is one of the former executives of the Yukos oil company, who was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in Russia on a murder charge. Nevzlin left for Israel in 2003.

Robert Latypov is accused of attempting to smuggle items of cultural value out of Russia.