The Ministry of Justice declared actress Yana Troyanova a “foreign agent”

The Russian Ministry of Justice has updated the register of “foreign agents” to include actress Yana Troyanova. This is reported on the department's website.

The register also included The Moscow Times, the company that owns the VPN service HideMyName, journalist Ilya Ber, former head of Nochlezhka and coordinator of the Walk through the Forest project Grigory Sverdlin, as well as political scientist Alexander Morozov.

The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that Yana Troyanova “disseminated false information” about the decisions taken by the Russian authorities and the policies they pursued, and also opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I carried out actions aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Participated as a respondent on information platforms provided by foreign media and foreign agents. Lives outside the Russian Federation,” the Ministry of Justice reported.

The agency also reported that based on “an application from a person intending to act as a foreign agent, M.I. was included in the register. Nikandrov." “Kholod” writes that we are talking about Pskov journalist Marat Nikandrov.

The Ministry of Justice explained the decision to include Hidemy.network Ltd., which sells the VPN service HideMy.name, in the registry by saying that the company “took part in distributing messages and materials of foreign agents to an unlimited number of people,” and also disseminated “unreliable information” about accepted Russian authorities' decisions.

Addition. Journalist Marat Nikandrov told Groza that he himself asked the Ministry of Justice to include him in the register of “foreign agents.” According to him, he decided to apply “about a week and a half ago” when “I was sitting with friends in a cafe and filled out this form for fun.” “Basically, I didn’t think it [being included on the list] was possible. I mean, it was just spontaneous, to be honest. <…> I just entered my passport data, then SNILS, and INN, too. Just to be sure, that’s all. There really was no more information, no source of funding, no source of anything else [they didn’t ask],” said 19-year-old Nikandrov.

• In May, Yana Troyanova’s interview with Yuri Dudu was published, in which she spoke out against the war in Ukraine, declared her support for Alexei Navalny, and talked about leaving Russia.