On 20 December 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry designated journalist Victoria Ivleva-York as a “foreign agent”, Russian media reported. Ivleva-York was accused of disseminating “fake news” about Russian authorities and “fake news” aimed at “creating a negative image” of the Russian army, as well as of collecting funds for the Ukrainian army and opposing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A veteran of Russian journalism, Ivleva-York is said to have been the only Russian journalist to have reported on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, as well as the only journalist to have been inside Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after its explosion. Her articles and photos were published both by Russian and international media. She is the laureate of the 1992 World Press Photo Award, the Russian Union of Journalists Award, and the Free Press of Eastern Europe Award.
Ivleva-York has been living in Kyiv since March 2022, she is the author of numerous reports on Russia’s full-scale invasion and on its effects on Ukraine.
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.