On 27 December 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry designated journalist Alexey Kovalev as a “foreign agent”, Russian media reported. Kovalev was accused of disseminating “fake news” about Russian authorities and “fake news” aimed at “creating a negative image” of the Russian army, as well as distributing content by other “foreign agents”.
Before 2014, Kovalev worked with Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The journalist later worked as the editor-in-chief of Coda.ru, before moving to Russian independent online outlet Meduza, which he left in 2023.
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.