Former employee of the administration of the head of Bashkortostan Rostislav Murzagulov was fined under the law on “foreign agents”

The Nagatinsky District Court of Moscow fined Rostislav Murzagulov, a former employee of the administration of Bashkortostan, PR specialist, who was included in the register of “foreign agents”, 30 thousand rubles. Mediazona was informed about this by the press service of the court.

A protocol was drawn up against Murzagulov on failure to provide the Ministry of Justice with a report on the activities of a “foreign agent” (Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). Similar complaints were previously received by libertarian Mikhail Svetov, editor-in-chief of Wonderzine Yulia Taratuta, and former participants in the TV game “What? Where? When?" Rovshan Askerov and Ilya Novikov.

After the start of the war, Murzagulov left Russia and in August 2022 became the host of the opposition political show “Obscene News” on the Open Media YouTube channel, associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Murzagulov was declared a “foreign agent” in December 2022. Prior to this, the ex-chairman of the Public Chamber of Bashkortostan himself appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia with a demand to include himself in the list of “foreign agents.” He resigned from his position in the Public Chamber in the summer of 2021. As wrote ” Ufa1.ru , Murzagulov was also “known as a political strategist who worked with the three heads of Bashkiria - Rakhimov, Khamitov and Khabirov. Murzagulov himself admitted that he was “on friendly terms” with Radiy Khabirov.

Companions of oppositionist Alexei Navalny accused Murzagulov of publicly criticizing the head of Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa, Liliya Chanysheva, and “harassing and persecuting” her while working in the administration of Bashkortostan. In November 2021, Chanysheva was arrested , and in June 2023, she was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. According to Navalny, Murzagulov was “preparing the ideological basis” for her persecution.

Murzagulov said that he had no influence on Chanysheva’s case, since all arrests of Navalny’s headquarters employees were controlled by Moscow security forces. After Navalny’s accusations, he published an apology to Chanysheva, who was in jail at the time. “I was wrong, and you were right. Sorry. Previously, I considered your activities radical and senseless, even harmful. Now I see I was wrong. Yes, I was sure that not you, but me and people like me would change the country for the better,” he wrote in an open letter.