The court refused to deprive human rights activist Lev Ponomarev of his “foreign agent” status

The Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow rejected the claim to invalidate the decision of the Ministry of Justice to include the head of the human rights project “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev in the list of “foreign agents,” reports MBKh Media, citing the human rights activist himself.

As the basis for the decision, the court referred to a letter from Rosfinmonitoring with a message that Ponomarev allegedly received money from abroad, as well as reposts from foreign media on Ponomarev’s Facebook. The human rights activist and lawyer Oleg Iskakov plan to appeal the decision.

• On December 28, 2020, the list of media “foreign agents” was supplemented for the first time with the names of individuals. The list included three journalists - Lyudmila Savitskaya, Sergei Markelov and Denis Kamalyagin, the head of the Movement for Human Rights Lev Ponomarev and civil activist and actionist Daria Apakhonchich.
• At the beginning of April, the court refused to take interim measures on the claim of Lev Ponomarev - to suspend his foreign agency status while his claim for its cancellation was considered. On March 31, another Moscow court rejected the claim of “7x7” journalist Sergei Markelov against the Ministry of Justice and called it legal to grant him the status of a foreign agent. During the trial, Markelov was not subject to restrictions associated with this status. The court in Pskov made the same decision on preliminary protection measures in relation to the lawsuit in relation to the journalist of Radio Liberty and MBKh Media Lyudmila Savitskaya. Another Pskov journalist, Denis Kamalyagin, was denied a temporary suspension by the court.
• At the end of December 2020, bills tightening the law on foreign agents were introduced and partially considered in the State Duma. Thus, repeated violation of reporting under this law will result in up to 5 years in prison. According to the new clarifications, the status of a foreign agent can be obtained by an individual who is engaged in political activities and receives money for this from abroad. Another bill prohibits the dissemination of information from foreign agents in the media without a special note.