Maxim Katz was fined due to the lack of marking as an individual “foreign agent”

The Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow fined blogger Maxim Katz 15 thousand rubles due to the lack of the marking of an individual as a “foreign agent” (Part 2 of Article 19.7.5-4 of the Administrative Code). This was announced by the head of the human rights organization "Agora" Pavel Chikov. The human rights activist points out that this is the first such fine that has become known.

The reason for the fine was posts on Telegram and videos on the blogger’s YouTube channel without “foreign agent” markings.

At the end of November, Moscow courts received administrative cases under the same article against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov and Evgeny Kiselev.

Katz was included in the register of individuals - “foreign agents” in July 2022. Currently, a single register has been created, which includes all organizations, associations and people who were previously included in one of the four registers of “foreign agents” that existed previously.

In October, it became known that Katz was put on the wanted list in the case of “fake news” about the Russian army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). The blogger himself is located outside the Russian Federation.

• At the end of December 2020, the State Duma adopted changes to the legislation on “foreign agents”. According to new clarifications, the status of “foreign agent” can be obtained by an individual engaged in political activities and receiving money for this from abroad. Another bill prohibits the dissemination in the media of information from “foreign agents” without a special mark. Tightening of legislation continued in 2021 and 2022 .
• OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project. We investigate practices of pressure on civil initiatives and protect victims from laws on “foreign agents.”