In 2022, the Ministry of Justice increased the pace of appointing new "foreign agents" several times. So, in 2022, the registry increased by 188 positions, and in 2021 – by 108. The vast majority of new defendants are individuals and legal entities recognized by the media as “foreign agents”. Last year, this category was replenished with 167 persons involved, compared with 94 the year before. Kommersant writes about this with reference to the report of the Ministry of Justice.
The number of NCOs included in the register increased by one position – 11 in 2022 against 10 in 2021. However, their funding last year decreased markedly – by 34%. In 2021, 1 billion rubles were transferred to the accounts of non-profit organizations-"foreign agents", in 2022 – about 687.1 million rubles. The Ministry of Justice claims that this is due to the liquidation of several organizations previously included in the register. Also, the year before last, eight unregistered public associations were recognized as "foreign agents" – two more than the year before.
In 2022, Roskomnadzor drew up 156 protocols against “foreign agents”, while in 2021 there were only 58. They were fined 228.6 million rubles against 3.8 million a year earlier. But the Ministry of Justice itself, due to the moratorium on scheduled inspections of NGOs, drew up only two such protocols. In 2021, there were 24 of them. The number of judicial appeals against the decisions of the Ministry of Justice on inclusion in the register has also increased: in 2021 – 118, in 2021 – 43 in 2021. However, not a single claim was satisfied.
As for exclusions from the "foreign agency" register, in 2022 the Ministry of Justice considered 25 such applications from 13 individuals and one legal entity. In 11 of them, applications were resubmitted during the year. As a result, nine individuals and one legal entity were excluded from the register, and four applicants were refused "due to the submission of false information about the termination of their activities as a foreign agent." Also, three NGOs were excluded from the register on their own applications and 18 more after their liquidation. Three NGOs were denied expulsion due to the inaccuracy of the information they provided.
