The Ministry of Justice included the Association of Carriers of Russia in the list of “foreign agents”

The Ministry of Justice recognized the public organization for promoting the development of road transport, the Association of Russian Carriers (OPR), as a “foreign agent,” according to the department’s website. The organization was included in the register of “foreign agents” following an unscheduled inspection.

At the same time, the chairman of the OPR, Andrei Bazhutin, claims that the organization does not receive funding from foreign structures. “We had a check. The Ministry of Justice called me back today and said that they had sent us the inspection materials. We presented the materials three days ago, and we still didn’t understand why this was done, because we have no connections with foreigners at all,” Bazhutin told Interfax.

The Association of Russian Carriers was founded in November 2015 as a result of protests by truckers against the introduction of the Platon system of charging heavy truck drivers.

In October of this year, the government introduced a bill to the State Duma to increase fines for failure to pay for the passage of heavy vehicles through the Platon system to 20 thousand rubles.

Updated at 15:57 : added comment from the RPR Chairman.