Culture figures asked Putin not to sign the law on individuals.

Human rights activists and cultural figures asked President of Russia Vladimir Putin not to sign the law on the recognition of individuals by foreign agents. The corresponding open letter was published on the website of the Public Movement "For Human Rights" by Lev Ponomarev, which was previously recognized as an foreigner, and in early November it was legally eliminated by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

The letter was signed, in particular, the musicians Andrei Makarevich and Alexei Paperny, writers Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Viktor Schenderovich, Multiplier Harry Bardin, director Liya Akhedzhakova, actor Andrei Smirnov, literary critic and publisher Irina Prokhorova, politics Lev Schlosberg, Leonid Gozman, human rights activists Lev Ponomarev, Valery Borschev, Svetlana Gannushkin, Boris Altshuler, sociologist Lev Gudkov, candidate of historical sciences Sergey Dmitriev, physicist Adam Glickman. In total, 60 people signed the appeal, participants in the intelligentsia congress.

"The obligation to register a legal entity is absurd," the letter says.

"The first article of the Civil Code speaks of the inadmissibility of interference in private affairs, the voluntary of the acquisition and exercise of civil rights," the statement emphasizes.

A specific citizen cannot predict the consequences and grounds of applying a new law to him in advance. He encroaches on the basic constitutional rights, and it will be almost impossible to challenge its application in court, human rights activists and cultural figures write.

"The stigma of a foreign agent discredits a person in the eyes of his fellow citizens, belittles his dignity, despite the fact that he did not commit anything bad and unlawful, and did not fulfill the will of foreign customers," the open letter says.

Recall that the scandalous law was initiated at the end of 2017 as a response to the demand of the US Ministry of Justice to RT America - the American branch of the Russian State Television Company - to register as a foreign agent in the United States. According to the head of the Commission of the Council of the Federation Council on the protection of state adviser Andrei Klimov, the Russian media working abroad experience very serious pressure, including in the United States and a number of European countries, so we are talking about "the need for a mirror response to this."

The law will allow foreign agents to recognize individuals and Russian legal entities who distribute or participate in the creation of media-foreign media and are funded in one form or another from abroad.

New norms allow you to block the Internet resource of a foreign media-foreign agent (or a legal entity created by him) in case of violation of the rules for the dissemination of information on the basis of a decision in the case of an administrative offense.

To work in the Russian Federation, a foreign media-foreign agent will be obliged to establish a Russian legal entity within one month from the date of receipt of the specified status. According to the law, in the weekend of the registered media, the participant (founder) of which is the Russian legal entity that performs the functions of the foreign agent, it should contain an indication that such a media is created by a foreign media-investigator. The requirement to label the products of the media-foreign agents and the ban on its distribution without marking is also introduced. The same restriction is established to distribute these materials without marking on the Internet.

It is assumed that the law will enter into force in February 2020. A fine for violation of the procedure for the media-foreign agent by this media or its Russian legal entity may amount to 5 million rubles. For citizens, fines will be from 10,000 to 100,000 rubles, depending on the degree of severity.

While the Ministry of Justice attributed ten media to foreign agents. These are “Voice of America”, “IDEL. REALIALS”, “Caucasus. Realities”, “Crimea. Realia”, the TV channel “Current time”, Tatar-Bashkir Radio Liberty Service (Azatliq Radiosi), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (PCE/PC), Siberia Realiy, Factographer, North Ro. Realia. In total, more than 70 organizations are listed in the register of “foreign agents”.

The bill was approved by the State Duma (311 deputies out of 315 were supported, and four abstained), and thenthe Federation Council (155 senators voted for, 1 - against). At the same time, legislators publicly admit that the new law is “raw”, and how it will be applied, you can only guess. In this regard, Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the SF, instructed the Committee on Constitutional Law and State Building to monitor law enforcement practice under this law. "In case of any violations or excessive practice of application, to respond, if necessary, to add additions and clarifications," she said.

The head of the Commission of the Council of the Federation Council for the Protection of State Sovereign Andrei Klimov said that only very few persons will be under the influence of the new law. “In my opinion, we are talking about a small number of people - these are not millions, not thousands, not many hundreds,” he reassured.

The chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, Leonid Levin, spoke out in the same vein. He promised that the law would not be sutured against bloggers and publicists. “If an individual writes or spreads materials about culture, sports or music, then such cooperation can hardly bear the risks of inclusion in the lists of foreign agents,” he explained. But if a person writes materials related to the socio-political situation, then the risks of falling into the lists of foreign agents will be quite large.

According to the president of Radio Liberty, Jamie Fly, the amendments to the law "On the media - foreign agents" adopted by the parliament are one of "dangerous, more and more increasing efforts aimed at the persecution of journalists." They are "the next step to ensure that Russian citizens receive only information approved by the Kremlin."