On 11 April 2025, Russia’s Ministry of Justice designated Ukrainian journalist Dasha Schastlivaya as a “foreign agent”, Russian media reported. Authorities in Moscow claimed that the journalist spread “fake news” about their decisions as well as “false information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian military”. The designation was also handed to her for opposing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Schastlivaya is known as a journalist who previously worked for the now defunct TV channel 112 Ukraina. The channel was controlled pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Victor Medvedchuk, who currently lives in exile in Moscow. In recent years, Schastlivaya has worked as an independent journalist active mainly on Youtube, where her channel has over 600 thousand subscribers. On her channel, she describes herself as a “Ukrainian journalist who is fighting an informational war with Russia”.
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.