A bill has been introduced to the State Duma that would prohibit Russian citizens and companies from publishing advertisements on the resources of “foreign agents” on the Internet. The document was published in the State Duma bill database.
The head of the State Duma committee to investigate foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, said that “the law is aimed at protecting the security and sovereignty of Russia.” “After all, in fact, the money of our citizens and businesses went to feed those who do not hide their openly hostile position towards the country,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
Piskarev clarified that if the bill is adopted, all Russian individuals and legal entities, regardless of their form of ownership, will be prohibited from placing advertisements on any resources of “foreign agents,” including websites, blogs and social networks. The media will also ban advertising of “foreign agents” resources.
According to State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, the bill will be considered on a “priority basis.”
- 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 who is recognized as “foreign agents” and on what grounds, what restrictions these people and organizations face, as well as what risks those who interact with them bear in our report .
- In December 2022, Vladimir Putin also signed a law on imprisonment for up to five years for “foreign agents” who were prosecuted twice in a year for violating the procedure for the activities of a “foreign agent” (Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). The total amount of fines imposed in 2022 and 2023 by Roskomnadzor on register participants due to the lack of appropriate markings exceeded 1 billion 17 million rubles. In February 2024, a criminal case under the article on evading the duties of a “foreign agent” (Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code) was opened against the editor-in-chief of the publication “Pskov Guberniya” Denis Kamalyagin; in the same month, the former coordinator of the movement “ was arrested in absentia under this article.” Voice" in Pskov by Vladimir Zhilinsky. She was also charged with “Voice” activist from Tver Artem Vazhenkov. The fact that a criminal case had been opened against him became known in February 2023.
- 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.”