The Ministry of Justice excluded the four members of the Voice Movement from the register of "foreign Agents"

The Ministry of Justice of Russia excluded four members of the Voice movement from the register of "foreign agents". This was reported on the website of the department.

Vladimir Zhilkin was excluded from the registry (coordinator of movement in the Tambov region), Alexander Lyutov (Mordovia), Alexander Grasev (Sverdlovsk Region) and Ilya Pigalkin (Ivanovo Region).

"This decision was made on the basis of applications for the exclusion, as well as the received documents from authorized state authorities," the agency said in a statement.

On April 29, the Ministry of Justice for the first time excluded two people from the register of the media, “foreign agents” - the expert of the Voice movement Arkady Lyubarev and the Samara human rights activist Lyudmila Kuzmin.

Members of the Voice movement, which organized the observation of the elections, was massively recognized as "foreign agents" in September 2021. The Voice itself was recognized as a foreign agent a month before the September elections to the State Duma.

• The first law related to "foreign agents" appeared in Russia in 2012. The Ministry of Justice received the right to recognize non-profit organizations “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are engaged in “political activity”. The criteria for such activities in the law were clearly not defined, because of which organizations operating in the field of education, culture, healthcare, ecology and human rights fell into the registers.
• Since then, the laws have tightened several times, expanding their effect on the media, individuals and LLC. More than 150 people and organizations are included in the register of media-regents. In 2021, the list has grown three times. More than two hundred organizations are included in the list of NKO-foreign agents.
• On April 5, 2022, the Ministry of Justice first replenished the register of individuals - "foreign agents". Russian-Ukrainian journalists Evgeny Kiselev and Matvey Ganapolsky were included there.
• The State Duma in April 2022 developed a new bill on "foreign agents". He will have to unite the currently existing registers of "foreign agents" (four of them) into one. If the law accepts that this will allow the authorities to assign the status of a “foreign agent” without financing from abroad, and subject to “support or foreign influence”. It will also be possible to get into the list with participation in political activities, when collecting data on military and military-technical activities, the distribution and creation of messages intended for an unlimited circle of persons. The new version of the law provides for additional restrictions: persons included in the register will not be able to apply for the organization of rallies, engage in teaching and educational activities, receive state grants. At the request of the Ministry of Justice, Roskomnadzor can block the website of a foreign agent due to violations, for example, in the absence of marking.