On 12 February 2024, a court in Moscow fined Russian exiled journalist Yulia Latynina 50 thousand rubles, on the grounds that she had allegedly violated Russian laws on “foreign agents”. Latynina received the designation in September 2022. According to authorities, the journalist did not mark her publications with a standard, compulsory disclaimer on her status.

Initially adopted in 2012, Russia’s law on foreign agents has been revised several times over the past decade to include an ever-wider range of potential targets for state-sponsored discrimination. Currently, any organization, media or private individual can be designated as such simply by being declared to be “under foreign influence” by the Russian Ministry of Justice or because of receiving funds of any amount from abroad (or from an entity itself receiving foreign funds). “Foreign agents” are also barred from receiving state financing, teaching at state universities, working with minors and providing expertise on environmental issues, among other restrictions.