A court in St. Petersburg fined artist and actionist Daria Apakhonchich 40 thousand rubles under the article on failure to provide a “foreign agency” report (Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). This was reported by the United Press Service of the Courts of St. Petersburg.
The activist was accused of failing to provide reports for the second half of the year and the fourth quarter of 2022.
Apakhonchich became one of the first “foreign agents” among individuals - she was added to the Ministry of Justice register in December 2020, and later emigrated.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war with Ukraine, the artist has ceased to comply with the requirements presented to “foreign agents”. Instead of reports, she sends to the Ministry of Justice drawings, anti-war and anti-authoritarian statements depicted on forms intended for “foreign agency” reports. In April 2022, in a “report” she addressed the Ministry of Justice, writing that “executing criminal orders is a crime,” in the summer of 2022 she “ordered Russia to stop,” and in the fall she talked “about borders, time and magic.” In January 2023, Apakhonchich began gluing several pages together and making large posters; in April, she cut out another appeal to the Ministry of Justice with a stationery knife.
- 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 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).
- In the fall of 2021, OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project. We explore the practice of applying laws on “foreign agents”, talk about their impact on civil society and specific people, initiate discussions with experts and suggest ways of possible changes. In December 2021, together with the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, we began to provide legal support to people and organizations that were included in the registers of “foreign agents.”