18% of “foreign agents” are under criminal prosecution in Russia
38 Russians, included by the Ministry of Justice in the registers of individuals – “foreign agents” and media outlets – “foreign agents”, are defendants in criminal cases, “Layout” calculated, having studied open data and the wanted database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
30 of them are wanted or in jail. The day before yesterday it became known that wanted announced адвокат Илья Новиков, которого объявили «иностранным агентом» 25 ноября. «Вёрстка» также заметила в базе МВД, что в розыск announced директор «Общества защиты интернета» Михаил Климарёв. МВД не уточняет, по каким уголовным делам разыскивают Новикова и Климарёва.
Since 2020, Russian authorities have declared 209 people “foreign agents”. To date every fifth “foreign agent” is involved in a criminal case, and almost every seventh is on the wanted list, in a pre-trial detention center or under another measure of restraint.
People from the list of natural persons-“foreign agents” are 5 times more likely to be persecuted. 17 of them are wanted, and two more – politician Ilya Yashin and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza – are under arrest. Kara-Murza is accused under three articles at once – on treason, on participation in an “undesirable organization” and on “military fakes”, Yashin is accused only of “military fakes” (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code – public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian federation).
This is the most popular article on which “foreign agents” are accused. In addition to Yashin, at least eight more people are wanted under this article, including military expert Ruslan Leviev, blogger Maxim Katz and ex-State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev.
Other grounds for criminal prosecution include accusations of involving children in uncoordinated actions (Aleksey Navalny’s associate Leonid Volkov), financing extremists (scientist Andrey Zayakin), divulging the secrets of the investigation (lawyer Ivan Pavlov) and concealing dual citizenship (Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov, politician Leonid Gozman).
The register of media-“foreign agents” appeared in 2017, and individuals – in 2020. Until 2021, the list of “foreign agents” media outlets was rarely updated, only five people and 12 media outlets were included. But since the end of last year, the register began to be replenished regularly, usually the Ministry of Justice does this on Fridays. Yesterday, the Ministry of Justice consolidated all the lists, including the list of NPOs that are “foreign agents”, into a single register.
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