“This was bound to happen sooner or later.” The Bashkortostan publication “Aspects” was declared a “foreign agent”

Last Friday, the Russian Ministry of Justice declared the publication “Aspects - Bashkortostan” a “foreign agent.” The project's journalists, who previously emigrated to Europe, said that they would continue to work despite the problems that the new status would bring them. Observers noted that Aspects “brought objective information to the population,” including about natives of Bashkortostan who died in the war with Ukraine. According to Okna’s interlocutors, it will now be much more difficult for the publication to receive information and invite speakers from the republic on air.

The Russian Ministry of Justice recognized the publication “Aspects - Bashkortostan” as a “foreign agent” on Friday, November 21.

“The publication disseminated false information about the decisions taken by public authorities of the Russian Federation and the policies they pursue, and opposed the special military operation in Ukraine ( the Russian authorities call a full-scale invasion of Ukraine a SVO or special military operation ), the department said in a statement. “ Took part in the creation and dissemination of messages and materials from foreign agents to an unlimited number of people.”

In the column “Full names of participants” in the departmental “ Register of Foreign Agents” the editor-in-chief of the publication Ruslan Valiev and journalist and broadcaster Evgeny Konoplin were indicated.

“Unfortunately, this is an expected event,” Ruslan Valiev commented on the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. — Despite the fact that the publication “ Aspects - Bashkortostan ” was and remains inherently truly patriotic in the best sense of the word, the logic of the current authorities assumed such a scenario. We love our country and our people, so we do not consider ourselves to be anyone's agents, except perhaps the agents of our own people.

Konoplin also said that he was “ not surprised ” by what happened.

“Neither I nor Ruslan [Valiev] gave up our calling, having neither funding for our activities nor a roof over our heads, and we won’t give up even now,” the journalist wrote . — It is an honor for me to be on the same list with outstanding people of our country (there are exceptions, but they are rare). If the terrorist state led by Putin considers us undesirable, if we interfere with them, then I am not living my life in vain.

Since Friday, a corresponding “plate” about the status of a “foreign agent” has appeared on the intros of Aspects broadcasts and on their social networks.

“ Every day we were moving toward the status of a foreign agent, engaging in independent journalism .”

The publication “Aspects - Bashkortostan” was created by the team of “Echo of Moscow” in Ufa” shortly after the closure of the radio station in the spring of 2022. The first program was released on the project’s YouTube channel on the morning of April 1, 2022. Since the beginning of its work, Aspects has focused on regional news. Experts and guests came to the Ufa studio, round tables were held, and problems in the republic were discussed.

The editor-in-chief of the publication, Ruslan Valiev, then stated that the editors of the new media would not “touch the story that is now unfolding in Ukraine - with the so-called “special military operation.” The journalist also added that Aspects, however, will not “ignore anti-war protests and the reaction to them of the authorities, security forces and courts.”

Speaking about financing the publication, Valiev said that he “ turned to representatives of business, business circles ” of the republic “ with a request to support the work of the new publication ” - and “a whole number of businessmen came forward .”

Ruslan Valiev himself for some time continued to remain on the Human Rights Council under the head of Bashkortostan ( he was included in it in the fall of 2019 ); in June 2022, he joined its new composition. However, in September of the same year - after the announcement of the so-called “partial” mobilization - Valiev left Russia and, after several months in Kazakhstan, moved to Germany. Aspects journalist Evgeny Konoplin also moved there.

At the beginning of 2025, Valiev noted that after emigrating, journalists had to work practically for free: “ After moving [to Germany], I continued to run a media project using donations, but it’s a pittance.”

In April 2024, the publication’s website and its pages on social networks began to be blocked, and Aspects journalists Razif Abdullin and Ruslan Valiev were harassed in the pro-government Telegram channels “Texas Khabirova”, “Oil Honey MurtaZa” and others.

In October 2024, the Ufa edition of Aspects was evicted from the studio ( it was located in the Ural-Tau hotel in Ufa ) under the pretext of upcoming renovations. It later became known that no repairs were actually planned.

Telegram channels close to the authorities subsequently claimed that the publication itself and its journalists would soon be declared “foreign agents.”

“They began accusing Aspects of anti-Russian views,” one of the journalists told the publication “That’s So.” — Some invited speakers were advised “not to take risks” - and they refused to participate literally a few minutes before the broadcast.

Against this background, the editor of the publication, Razif Abdullin, left the project and retired.

The journalists themselves associated the increased pressure on the publication with critical coverage of the elections of the head of Bashkortostan, which took place in September 2024. The Aspects presenters called the elections “ completely rigged.”

“ If the editorial office is completely destroyed and some other status like “foreign agent” is assigned to it, then in any case I intend to keep the project alive, ” Ruslan Valiev said then. - Even if only from abroad, even if only in my person.

“There have always been formal reasons for including us in this register - at least since the Baymak events”

“ Window ” spoke with Aspects journalists about the possible reasons for including the publication in the register of “foreign agents” and about their plans for the future.

“It seemed to me that there were always formal reasons for including us in this register - at least since the Baymak events,” said the publication’s editor-in-chief Ruslan Valiev. “And the reasons that are listed on the Ministry of Justice website are, in general, so to speak, “relevant.” We are indeed critical of the policies of our state, of the “special military operation” it is conducting in Ukraine. After the editorial office in Ufa was closed, we actually made our rhetoric more frank - and since then we haven’t changed much. Indeed, we sometimes repost materials from some Russian media in exile, some of which have already been declared “foreign agents.” This is enough for the Russian Ministry of Justice.

Answering the question why the publication was recognized as a “foreign agent” right now, Valiev suggested that “this story is not about Aspects, but about the point at which society and the system are located.”

“I think the point here is not about us - the point is that this is how the system works.” That is, first they fight with the main enemies, then with the secondary ones, and then they fight with everyone who passed by. Apparently, the second stage is now in full swing, when it is necessary to finish off those who are not so important and not so dangerous, but seem to be formally “enemies of the people,” Valiev said.

Aspects journalist, one of the publication’s broadcasters Zhenya Konoplin ( the interlocutor asked to call him Zhenya ) agreed that declaring them “foreign agents” “was just a matter of time.”

“I, of course, would like to believe that the reason for what happened is our constant work, the growth of our social networks. I would like to note that if, for example, before the Baymak events our YouTube channel was not very popular - there were about 15 thousand subscribers, then after that we began to work very closely and reached the mark of 70 thousand subscribers. I think this is good for regional media, since we work together. Of course, we have very limited resources, but we also made our 10 thousand on our Instagram account. Our Telegram channel is also developing.

Konoplin also suggested that “the broadcasts of Aspects with Ruslan Gabbasov and Rostislav Murzagulov probably played a role,” and added that “the authorities, of course, paid attention to the publication’s sharp criticism of the federal and Bashkortostan authorities.”

“Perhaps another reason is that we publish lists of natives of Bashkortostan who died in the war with Ukraine,” the journalist said. “This irritated the local authorities. Of course, they themselves publish such messages, but it’s one thing when it’s published in a local community about one person, and another thing when we publish it in whole groups of 15-20-25 people - and we do this almost every day. Such visibility, I think, hit some comrades in the republic over the head. And there were cases when, after our publications, local authorities reacted so nervously that they simply removed such messages and even entire sections dedicated to the deaths of fellow countrymen in the war from their social networks. This was the case, for example, when the authorities of the Sharansky district removed the message about the death of a fellow countryman just a couple of hours after our publication.

Regarding the possible consequences of assigning the status of a “foreign agent” to a publication, journalists suggested that their audience would most likely increase, but the number of speakers from Bashkortostan, on the contrary, would decrease.

“The number of such speakers we already had was extremely small,” noted Ruslan Valiev. — Due to lack of resources, we haven’t had interviews for several months. Will there be even fewer of them? No, it can't be any less. I hope that, on the contrary, there will be more of them, because we will become more bold in inviting other “foreign agents” who are abroad and with whom we now find ourselves in the same boat.

“If we talk about our audience, I will note that it is growing,” said Zhenya Konoplin. — In our Telegram channel, subscribers have increased by one hundred people in recent days ( as of November 24 - about 4,930 people ). We'll see what happens next with the broadcasts, but I think that for our audience such status is rather a sign of quality. As for speakers from the republic, in the last year and a half there have been fewer and fewer of them. This was partly due to our lack of resources, but partly due to the fears of Bashkortostan activists. We call them on the air, and they say: “No, we’d better remain silent for now, quietly do our job, and we’ll give all the interviews in “Beautiful Russia of the Future.” I don’t really understand this position, but in general, of course, you have to put up with it and treat it with respect.

Journalists also stated that they still have to work “virtually for free.”

“We essentially don’t have any funding,” said Konoplin. — At one time there were some donations from subscribers, but since September of this year there has been nothing at all. I hope that when we finally have resources, we will be able to work fully.

Journalists did not disclose specific plans for receiving such funding.

“They were doing much needed work.”

Interviewed observers also noted that new repressions against Aspects were expected.

“They did a very necessary job - as an independent publication, they brought objective information to the population,” said one of the Bashkortostan activists on condition of anonymity. “They reported information about corruption, and about officials who were dirty in these cases, about trials against people who allowed themselves to have their own opinions. They spoke freely and critically about the “SVO”, reported about those killed in the war and the failures of the Russian army, about the “meat” assaults. And this, of course, did not please Radiy Khabirov and his entourage. The internal policy department of the administration of the head of the republic began to fight against them from the very beginning. I think they finally achieved that the publication was declared a “foreign agent.” Perhaps the head [of the republic] himself tried.

Bashkir political emigrant Ruslan Gabbasov also believes that “the authorities of the republic have tried their best here.”

— Of all the more or less independent media related to Bashkortostan, they remained the only ones that consistently, every day, discussed the problems in the region. At the same time, they allowed themselves to harshly criticize the republican authorities and quite clearly stood on the side of Ukraine in the war. Therefore, this had to happen sooner or later. It was surprising, of course, that they allowed themselves to invite on air some people on whom, as they say, there is nowhere to put a stigma - for example, pro-government blogger Arslan Nigamatyanov and others. Well, that's their editorial policy.

The activist agreed that with the assignment of the “foreign agent” status, the publication would lose the number of speakers from the republic.

“We see that people are more and more afraid of contacting foreign agent media - not only giving them comments, but even referring to them, quoting them. And, I think, it will now be much more difficult for Aspects to search for and obtain information, as we have already seen from the examples of other foreign agent media,” Gabbasov concluded.