On 26 May 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated Anna Pshenichnaya (Mukhina), a journalist working with the indepedent news agency Svobodniye Novosti (“Free News” in Russian), as a “foreign agent”. The Ministry claimed Pshenichnaya disseminated false information about Russian authorities and about the Russian army (any news on the war in Ukraine not confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defence is automatically considered “false information” in Russia). Officials also claimed that the journalist supported Ukrainian authorities, created content for foreign agents, and received financial support from foreign sources.
According to Svobodniye Novosti, a member of the regional assembly of Saratov named Yulia Litnevskaya had earlier written a denunciation to regional prosecutor Sergei Filipenko. In her appeal, Litnevskaya claimed that “recruited agents” who were “trained at Oxford” are active in the Saratov media sphere. According to the local politician, these journalists include Anna Mukhina, as well as Nikolay Lykov, the editor-in-chief of the local Vzglyad-Info news agency.
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.