On 24 October 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated journalists Nino Rosebashvili, Irina Kuzmicheva, Ruslan Suleymanov and Dmitry Chernyshevsky as “foreign agents”. Online media projects Serditaya Chuvshiya (“Angered Chuvashiya”) and Ust-Kut24 also received the designation.
Authorities claimed that the four journalists and the two media projects had all opposed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They were also accused of disseminating content created by other “foreign agents” and organizations designated as “undesirable” (banned) in Russia, as well as of “disseminating fake news about the decisions 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 barred from receiving state financing, teaching at state universities, working with minors and providing expertise on environmental issues, among multiple other restrictions.