The editor-in-chief of Mediazona, Sergei Smirnov, was fined for not being labeled as a “foreign agent”

The Butyrsky District Court of Moscow fined the editor-in-chief of Mediazona Sergei Smirnov 30 thousand rubles due to the lack of the “foreign agent” marking (Part 4 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). Mediazona writes about this with reference to lawyer Vladimir Voronin.

This is the second such fine imposed on Smirnov. In July 2022, the court fined him 10 thousand rubles.

Smirnov was added to the register of media “foreign agents” in September 2021. At the same time, Mediazona itself and its publisher Pyotr Verzilov were included in the register.

• The legislation on “foreign agents” is becoming stricter every year. On December 1, 2022, the law “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence” came into force, as well as numerous legislative amendments to “foreign agency” regulation. You can read about the list of “affiliated persons”, new registers and other innovations in the law on “foreign agents” in the analysis of OVD-Info .
• In December 2022, 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).