Irkutsk: historian Petrov sued the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation because of the foreign agency

The Irkutsk historian and journalist Alexei Petrov (entered on September 30 to the register of media-enactants filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice with a request to indicate the reasons why he was made on this list. The editorial office of Siberia. Realia announced this by his lawyer Vyacheslav Ivanets.

According to the lawyer, Petrov also filed a lawsuit to cancel the decision to make him in the register of foreign agents.

“They filed a claim for the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, who recognized me as an ino -agent, but didn’t tell me why. Let him tell in the courtroom. The coming year will not be languid,” Petrov commented on his facebook.

Earlier, the Ministry of Justice refused to respond to his request about why the authorities decided to declare him "the media that performs the functions of a foreign agent." In the response to the request of Petrov, the Ministry of Justice simply listed the laws on “foreign agents” in force in Russia, saying that the decision is adopted on the basis of “documents received from state authorities”, and “the provision of other documents is not provided for by the order”.

“They sent me right away and said that it was forever, or is there any timid hope? What documents were received from which state authorities received? And why are not the provision of other documents? We continue to correspond. We are preparing for lawsuits,” Petrov commented.

20 days after the announcement of the inclusion of Alexei Petrov in the register of media-foreign agents, the Ministry of Justice of Russia included a register of foreign media performing the functions of the Foreign Agent, the Irkutsk Bibliophile Union Fund for Book Culture. Petrov is the founder of the fund. He told the editorial office of Siberia. Reali that he was very surprised and did not send any requests for the inclusion of the fund to the Ministry of Justice. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice called the new replenishment of the register "by the conscientious implementation of the requirements of the law established for persons included in the register and aimed at improving the information transparency of their activities indicated by individuals."

“No one asked anyone. Complete nonsense. All my commentary,” Petrov said. “Well, there is naturally no foreign money and there were no money.”

On the same day, the register included honest elections LLC, created on October 29, 2021. The organization has 18 founders, including Alexei Petrov.

The co-chair of the Voice movement ( entered in the register of "Ino-Agents" in August 2021) Grigory Melkonian believes that the "Irkutsk Union of Bibliophiles" The Ministry of Justice included in the register of the "foreign Agents" by mistake.

"According to the law, the individuals-" foreign agents "should create a legal entity and inform the Ministry of Justice for a month after getting into the register, as well as report on previously created legal entities. In a press release on the renewal of the register, in which the Irkutsk Union of Bibliophiles and LLC" Honest Elections " included on November 19, the Ministry of Justice mentioned that it was a matter of" conscientious implementation " The law of individuals “foreign agents” - that is, in the register included a legal entity created by individuals -“foreign agents”, however, the “Irkutsk Union of Bibliofils” was created by historian Alexei Petrov in 2005, when the law on “foreign agents” did not exist yet, - I think they did not look at the Ministry of Justice. The legal entity was created in the fulfillment of the Law on the Media, "foreign agents".

• The Ministry of Justice began to bring Russian citizens into the register of individuals-foreign agents since the end of 2020. It is not only about journalists, but also about human rights activists, activists and lawyers. There are already more than 30 people in the register, among them the authors of the North Realia: Ekaterina Klepikovskaya, Tatyana Voltskaya, Lyudmila Savitskaya, Sergey Markelov, Elizabeth Time. The editor of the Mediazona publication (in 2021, the Ministry of Justice was found in an ino-agent) Sergey Smirnov, journalist of the BBC Andrei Zakharov, lawyer of the media protection center (entered into the register of NPO-foreign) Galina Arapova, human rights activist Lev Ponomarev, activist Daria Apakhonchich (was included in the Voil Register of foreign agents) that were engaged in the monitoring of elections in Russia.
• Over the past six months, the list of foreign agents has also increased. It included “important stories”, The Insider, Vtimes.io, “Medusa”, “First Anti-Corruption Media”, Rain TV channel, Bellingcat, Mediazona, Caucasian Knot, ATS-Info and others. In total, in the register of media-foreign agents of 85 editions and journalists.
• At the end of August, the Russian media published an appeal to the president, speakers of both chambers of the Russian parliament and the leaders of the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation demanding to stop repressions against journalists. An open letter to Vladimir Putin was signed by more than 20 independent Russian publications, which demanded to cancel the list of the media “foreign agents”. The Kremlin promised to consider the appeal.

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