The Ministry of Justice has declared activist Daria Bogdanova and the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel “foreign agents”

The Ministry of Justice declared activist Darya Bogdanova and the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel "foreign agents". The list also included former municipal deputy from St. Petersburg and feminist Anna Karulicheva.

The project "Russian Crime"/"VChK-OGPU", according to the department, formed "a negative image of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", criticized the policy of the Russian authorities and distributed materials of "foreign agents". The department named Alisher Abdullaev and Alexander Shvarev as the authors of the project.

Shvarev was arrested in absentia in Russia in a case of slander (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code) against billionaire Alisher Usmanov and extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code). In 2020, he was granted political asylum in Latvia. Abdullaev was also arrested in absentia in this case.

Darya Bogdanova is an activist of the Freedom Birds for Ukraine project and the great-granddaughter of Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov. In May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put her on the wanted list. Before that, professional informer Vitaly Borodin reported that a criminal case for calls for terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) had been opened against her following his complaint to the Moscow prosecutor's office.

In its decision, the Justice Ministry wrote that she disseminated “false information” about decisions made by the Russian authorities, spoke out against the war in Ukraine, raised money for the SBU, and distributed materials from “foreign agents.”

Karulicheva was also included on the list for distributing materials from “foreign agents,” publishing “false information” about Russia’s electoral system, and criticizing the authorities.