Vladimir Putin signed the ‘foreign agent’ law that refers to individual persons. The document was published on Russia’s legal information portal.
The law passed the necessary approval procedure: on November 21, it was adopted by the State Duma of Russia, on November 25, the Federation Council endorsed it.
It allows the Russian authorities to give the ‘foreign agent’ status to individuals who participate in establishing ‘foreign agent’ media outlets, spreading the news produced by them and receive money from abroad for their activity. The status may be granted to both Russian and foreign citizens.
Human rights activists, people of culture and science repeatedly called on Vladimir Putin not to sign the above-mentioned law. They called the document ‘legally absurdist and unconstitutional’. About 60 people put their signatures under the corresponding petition, meduza.io reports.
Initially, Russia adopted the law on organizations – ‘foreign agents’ in 2012. In accordance with it, if an organization engaged in political activities receive any foreign funding, it may be considered as a foreign agent. In this case, the authorities are to exercise tighter control over such NGO.
In November, a Moscow court imposed a fine of 300,000 Russian rubles ($4,700) on the international society Memorial over allegedly violating the ‘foreign agents’ law.
