On 26 September 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated journalists Andrey Kalitin and Zinayda Pronchenko as “foreign agents”, Russian independent media reported.
Kalitin is known as a journalist for Novaya Gazeta and as a former TV presenter, while Pronchenko is the editor-in-chief of independent analytical media outlet Republic.ru.
Russia claimed that Kalitin and Pronchenko opposed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, produced “fake news” on decisions and policies by Russian authorities, as well as distributed content by other “foreign agents”.
Kalitin was additionally accused of working with an “undesirable (banned) organization”, while Pronchenko was said to “work with a ‘foreign agent'”.
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 barred from receiving state financing, teaching at state universities, working with minors and providing expertise on environmental issues, among multiple other restrictions.