A protocol was drawn up at Levada Center under the article on violation of the activities of a “foreign agent”; The Ministry of Justice added the organization to the list back in 2016

The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow registered the materials of the administrative case against the independent research organization Levada Center. Mediazona drew attention to this information in the database of the capital’s courts.

According to the case file , a protocol was drawn up at the ANO “Yuri Levada Analytical Center” under the article on the failure or untimely submission by a “foreign agent” of the necessary information to the authorized body (Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). A court date has not yet been set.

The Ministry of Justice included the sociological organization in the register of “foreign agents” in September 2016. The agency made this decision after an amendment was made to the law equating the conduct of opinion polls with political activity. Such activities were recognized as “aimed at the formation of socio-political views.”

A month later, the court for the first time fined Levada Center 300 thousand rubles under the article on violating the legislation on “foreign agents”. Later, the organization appealed to the Constitutional Court with a complaint about the provisions of the law that allowed Levada Center to be included in the list of the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the court refused to consider the application. After this, the research NGO appealed to the ECHR.