Supervision of “foreign agents” in Russia will now be carried out in a continuous manner - the State Duma has adopted a new law

The Duma adopted in the third reading a law creating new restrictions and inconveniences for “foreign agents.” Project No. 1129941-8 was introduced by deputies Piskarev, Lugovoy and others.

The procedure for interaction between the Ministry of Justice, which maintains a register of “foreign agents,” and banks where these agents may have money accounts will be simplified. This is an important technical addition to the law adopted by the Duma on May 26 and already approved by the Federation Council - on the possibility of seizing the property of those who left the country and received a fine in absentia for failure to comply with the duties of a “foreign agent” and under other political articles of the Administrative Code.

If the Ministry of Justice refuses to exclude a “person under foreign influence” from the register, a repeated application can now be submitted only after a year.

Officials are getting rid of unnecessary work - and to say the least, cases of exclusion from the register are rare.

The most important point of the new law seems to be the most inconspicuous: it concerns amendments to the law “On Mandatory Requirements in the Russian Federation” dated July 31, 2020 No. 247-FZ. Compliance with legislation on “foreign agents” will be expressly included in the list of mandatory requirements. In practice this will mean that

Now, in order to initiate certain administrative or criminal legal procedures against “foreign agents” or persons who in one way or another welcome them, someone’s “signal” (statement) will not be required - supervision over the “agents” will be carried out in a continuous manner.

Legislators no longer know what else to come up with, so from September 1, “persons under foreign influence” will also be prohibited from posting social advertising. What, was it possible before?..