Law on Mino Agencies

Representatives of all four Duma factions agreed on amendments to the legislation that allow us to reckon foreign media to "foreign agents". This was stated by Vice Speaker Peter Tolstoy, reports Interfax.

The authors of the amendments are the chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, the leaders of the factions and a number of deputies, including himself, said Tolstoy. At a meeting at the speaker on Tuesday with representatives of factions, the amendments were agreed. “They are ready,” said the vice speaker.

"The media registered in the territory of another state or receiving cash or other funds from foreign structures - state bodies or companies or from Russian companies with foreign financing can be recognized by foreign agents, regardless of their legal form," the amendment to the Law "On Media" reads.

It is also proposed to introduce for the media outlets announced by the “foreign agents” to label their belonging to this category, Tolstoy said. "As for the marking, this is the norm in the Law on NPOs and, accordingly, it is projected to the media products. We can’t carry anything on purpose. If the media is recognized as the" ino -agent ", then it acts as the NKO -Agent is valid," Tolstoy explained. To decide which media falls under the status of a "foreign agent", as in the case of NPOs, there will be a minist.

Answering the question whether the license will deprive the media if it refuses to register as a foreign agent, Tolstoy said that "such a media ceases to work in the Russian Federation."

“These amendments will be included in the law on information (in the first reading of the amendment to block information of unwanted organizations) and the law on the media,” said the chairman of “Agora” Pavel Chikov. “If the media refuses to recognize itself as a“ foreign agent ”, then it will cease to function on the territory of Russia. In other words, the registration certificate will be announced (the law provides for the judicial procedure). Will the status extend to the status. Internet sites that are not registered as the media are still unclear.

Later on Tuesday, amendments were officially made to the State Duma. They will be considered by the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications. Already on Wednesday, amendments will be submitted for consideration within the framework of the second reading of amendments to the Law "On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information". Meanwhile, new amendments are not prepared into this law - they are proposed to be adopted as part 3, 4 of Article 6 of the Law "On Media". This technique is used not to consider new initiatives as an independent bill, which significantly accelerates their passage.

Meanwhile, the State Duma deputy, deputy secretary of the United Russia General Council, Sergei Zheleznyak, said that the Commission of the Council for the Protection of State Sovereignty is considering another initiative. It is proposed to oblige foreign states or organizations formed with the support of foreign states, to implement their projects in Russia only in partnership with Russian structures and with the permission of the Russian authorities. This, Unitedos explained, will make transparent goals and objectives of such organizations.

On the eve of the first deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Andrei Isaev said that a number of foreign media, including Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle, CNN, Voice of America, could fall under the amendments.

On November 10, Volodin stated that the lower house of parliament may be adopted for a week to restrict the work of foreign media in Russia in response to the “oppression” of the Russian media in the United States. According to Volodin, such an initiative can be considered on Wednesday.

The next day, President Vladimir Putin promised that Moscow’s response to restrictions on the activities of Russian media in the United States would be “adequate and mirror” .

On Monday, Russia Today America, at the request of the US Ministry of Justice , registered as a foreign agent .