Activist Daria Serenko was denied the removal of her “foreign agent” status

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow refused to remove the “foreign agent” status from activist Daria Serenko. This was reported by the First Department.

The activist’s interests are represented by lawyer Maxim Olenichev, who is collaborating with the project.

Serenko was added to the register of “foreign agents” in January; At the court hearing, the Ministry of Justice provided a 73-page justification for this decision. Among the reasons why the activist was considered a “foreign agent” is a post about being included in the same register of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAS) movement, a post in the telegram channel of the Vesna movement about the activist’s speech at the international anti-war forum in Paris, an article from the publication “The Conversation” about Russian feminists opposing the war, and a tweet about the IT hackathon of the Wagner PMC.

Olenichev said that he and Serenko plan to appeal the court’s decision. The lawyer also drew attention to the defense of the Wagner PMC by government agencies: “It turns out that such criticism [of Wagner] is contrary to the interests of the state. A critical post about him, anti-war activities and support for the LGBT movement became a formal reason for including Daria Serenko in the register of “foreign agents.”

• In February 2022, Serenko was arrested for 15 days under the article on demonstration of extremist symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences) because of the “Smart Voting” symbols published on Instagram.
• In December 2022, the law and numerous legislative amendments to “foreign agency” regulation came into force. Among other things, they tighten liability for failure to submit reports to the Ministry of Justice, and also abolish banking, family and commercial secrets. More details in the analysis of OVD-Info .
• In addition, Vladimir Putin signed a law on imprisonment for a term of up to five years for “foreign agents” who were brought to justice twice in a year for violating the procedure for the activities of a “foreign agent” (Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code).
• OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project. We investigate practices of pressure on civil initiatives and protect victims from laws on “foreign agents.”

The text of the news has been changed.