On 2 August 2023, Russian independent media outlet MediaZona reported that a court in Moscow was set to examine a fine against German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, on the grounds that the media outlet did not mark its publications as authored by a “foreign agent”. Russian authorities handed this status to Deutsche Welle in March 2022, following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Prior to this, the outlet’s website had been blocked in Russia. Its Moscow office was also forcibly closed by authorities. The Moscow court examining Deutsche Welle’s case did not specify what publications the German public broadcaster was being incriminated for.
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.