On 10 February 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice added several more activists and cultural figures to its list of “foreign agents”, including among them LGBT rights activist and journalist Aleksandra Kazantseva. Authorities accused her of “[spreading] LGBT propaganda” and of collecting funds in support of Ukraine. Pro-Kremlin media earlier reported that a conservative and anti-LGBT Russian activist had sent an official request to the ministry, asking for Kazantseva to be recognized as a foreign agent. The activist was said to have cited Kazantseva’s denouncing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as her pro-LGBT activities, which according to Russian law constitutes “LGBT propaganda” and is outlawed.
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.