On 31 January 2025, Russian authorities designated five more journalists as “foreign agents”, Russian media reported. The updated list of “agents” included Dmitry Sukharev, a journalist working with the investigative project “System” by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as well as BBC Russian Service journalists Ilya Abishev and Elizaveta Fokht, as well as a journalist from Kemerovo region who now lives abroad, Andrei Novashov. Journalist, blogger and historian Vladimir Rayevsky was also added to the “foreign agent” list.

Russian authorities accused the media workers of “creating a negative image of Russian soldiers” and of opposing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The journalists were also said to have “spread fake news about decisions and policies of Russian authorities”.

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.