VTimes publication is recognized as a foreign agent media • The Bell • RIMA

VTimes publication is recognized as a foreign agent media

The VTimes publication is recognized as a foreign agent media - it is included in the appropriate register of the Ministry of Justice.

In the department’s register, the 20th edition recognized as a foreign agent was “a legal entity registered in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Stichting 2 Oktober, which is the administrator of the domain name of the Internet resource “VTimes.io.”

“Neither VTimes nor the Stichting 2 Oktober foundation are media outlets in any jurisdiction. VTimes sent a request to the Ministry of Justice,” the editorial office said in a statement.

The VTimes publication was launched in the fall of 2020 by the editors and journalists of Vedomosti, who left the newspaper after a change of owners and management.

The entire management staff of the Vedomosti editorial staff and a significant part of the journalists left the publication in mid-June - after the Ural media manager Ivan Eremin became the new official owner of Vedomosti. He appointed Andrei Shmarov, who led Vedomosti as acting editor, as editor-in-chief of the newspaper. editor-in-chief since the end of March. From the first days of his work, Shmarov had a conflict with Vedomosti journalists; he was accused of violating editorial standards and censorship.
According to an investigation by Meduza , The Bell , Forbes and Vedomosti itself, since 2017, a subsidiary bank of Rosneft controlled the debt of the company that owned Vedomosti. This could lead to a change of ownership.

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The media began to be recognized as foreign agents at the end of 2017. The main criterion for inclusion in the register is foreign funding. Foreign agent media must indicate their status in publications. In addition, a month after being included in the register, the publication must register a legal entity in Russia.

A few weeks ago, Meduza was added to the list of foreign agents after a government agency reported foreign funding for the publication. The “First Anti-Corruption Media” was also included in the register. The Bell explained how the media are threatened by being included in the list of foreign agents here .