On 21 October 2023, courts in Moscow registered cases against journalists Roman Badanin and Elizaveta Surnacheva, who were accused of not supplying authorities with regular financial and activity reports, reported Russian independent media outlet MediaZona. Badanin and Surnacheva are designated as “foreign agents” in Russia and are legally required to submit such reports several times a year. If found guilty, they face a fine of up to 50 thousand rubles each.
Badanin is the editor-in-chief of Proekt, an investigative media outlet legally recognized as “undesirable” by Russian authorities. Surnacheva is a journalist with Current Time, a Russian-language TV channel based in Prague, which covers countries where Russian is predominantly spoken, and is funded by an agency of the U.S. government.
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.
UPDATE: On 7 November 2023, a court in Moscow fined Roman Badanin 30 thousand rubles on charges of not fulfilling his legal obligations as a “foreign agent”, as he did not provide Russian authorities with regular reports on his activity and sources of income.
UPDATE: On 9 September 2024, a court in Moscow again fined Badanin 30 thousand rubles on grounds of not adding disclaimers on his “foreign agent” status to his publications.