On 17 February 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice added journalist Andrey Loshak to its list of “foreign agents”. Loshak is a television journalist and documentary film director. In 2022, he directed a documentary film about families in Russia which broke apart following the country’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Justice, Loshak collaborated with “foreign structures” and spread “negative information” about the Russian government and its decisions.
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.