Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russia's process for deciding who is a 'foreign agent' is reported to be arbitrary and corrupt, with individuals being deliberately set up for inclusion and others added because they are associates of targeted individuals or simply because they have annoyed officials. ⬇️

2/ Russia's Foreign Agents Law, passed in 2012, requires anyone who receives "support" from outside Russia or is under "influence" from outside Russia to register and declare themselves as "foreign agents". This has enabled the authorities to harass and censor them.

3/ Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the number of people being targeted under the law has increased greatly. Many independent journalists, news outlets, activists and critics of the regime have been targeted. Some have had to go into exile; others have been imprisoned.

4/ However, Verstka reports, source close to the Russian Ministry of Justice say that formerly strict criteria have been replaced by arbitrary orders and situational judgments, as well as overt instances of deliberately framing people so they can be declared 'foreign agents'.

5/ Originally, the criteria for being a declared 'foreign agent' were twofold: you either had to be a "an irritant to the authorities", or to have received foreign funding, for which there was no statute of limitations – so any money ever received from abroad would count.

6/ This has allowed for some creative moves. As an example, the election observers' Movement for the Defence of Voters' Rights "Golos" ("Voice") was declared a foreign agent after someone working for the Russian government sent it 200 rubles ($2.23) from Armenia.

7/ Since an amendment to the law in 2022, however, it has been possible to be declared a foreign agent without foreign state funding. It is now considered enough to "fall under foreign influence", a completely arbitrary criterion.

8/ Corrupt officials can get personal enemies onto the list through contacts in the Ministry of Justice. "You can literally contact this department [which oversees law enforcement in the NGO sector] through your friends and say, such and such annoy me, pay attention to them."

9/ The ministry also proactively monitors news and social media outlets to make "situational judgments" about who to include, which can lead to very rapid decisions. When actor Artur Smolyaninov declared his readiness to fight for Ukraine, he was listed only 5 days later.

10/ The list also punishes 'guilt by association'. According to Verstka's source, the Ministry of Justice "singles out one or two" representatives of the media or a company and includes in the list at the same time other people who are “associated with this office."

11/ In such circumstances it does not matter if the target is even still employed by the organisation being targeted.

12/ The source says: "They are looking for [potential targets] in the media, on Telegram, in conversations among themselves. The evidence base is not as important as the negativity [towards the targets] coming from the right people."

13/ New lists of 'foreign agents' are released each Friday. While there is no quota, the people compiling the list are expected to find new entries each week. If they don't find anything to condemn people, the source says, "they make it up."

14/ Decisions can be delayed due to disagreements over who to include, or even vacations in the department responsible for listing. "They may slow down due to dissatisfaction of someone at the top with the inclusion of a certain person there, or stupidly because of vacations".

15/ The listing of the rock star Boris Grebenshchikov and the producer and screenwriter Semyon Slepakov caused particular disagreements. The final decision is made by Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko, whose voice is described as "decisive".

16/ Sviridenko, a former judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court who is now under international sanctions, is described as "dishonest" and is said to have become a millionnaire from bribes. It's reportedly possible to get people added to the foreign agents list for a fee.

17/ Verstka's sources say that this happened to Katerina Bosov, the widow of banker Dmitry Bosov. "Sviridenko did this for a certain fee. This was the strangest case possible". She was listed in 2022 with the claim that she was being funded from Ukraine.

18/ Bosov claimed at the time that the Ministry of Justice had been misled by a fake interview in which she purportedly claimed that she had often gone to rallies "in support of democratic processes" and that the war in Ukraine was the straw that broke the camel’s back."

19/ Bosov is a controversial figure who came under investigation with unproven accusations that she had driven her billionnaire husband to suicide. In 2020 she discovered his body with a gunshot wound to the head, and later fled into exile in the West.

20/ While the facts of Bosov's case are unclear, it's been evident for a while that the foreign agents law – which human rights activists say violates Russia's own constitution – has become an instrument for arbitrary coercion and legal harassment. /end

Source:
verstka.media/kak-lyudey-i-o…