On 14 April 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated Agentstvo (“The Agency”), an independent Russian online investigative media, as well as journalists Pavel Kanygin and Igor Yakovenko, as “foreign agents”. In a statement, the Ministry said Kanygin and Yakovenko “opposed the special military operation in Ukraine”, using the Russian state’s official terminology for the war. Agentstvo, in turn, was accused of “discrediting the Russian army”.
Founded in 2021, Agentstvo is the successor of Proekt, an independent Russian media known for several investigations into corruption in the near circle of president Vladimir Putin.
Pavel Kanygin is a Russian journalist who has worked with the independent Russian media Novaya Gazeta since 2004, who has also covered the initial phase of the war in Ukraine in 2014-2015. He founded his own media project, Prodolzheniye Sleduyet (“To be continued”), following the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Igor Yakovenko is a former secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists. He has lived outside of Russian since 2009. Following the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, he regularly commented on the war for the Ukrainian Russian-language channel FreeDom.
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.