Russia: The State Duma introduced a bill on the recognition of individuals as foreign agents

A draft law was submitted to the State Duma on Wednesday on the possibility of recognizing as foreign agents individuals engaged in political activities or collecting information in the military-technical sphere and receiving money and other assistance from abroad. The initiative is included in the legislative base of the lower chamber of the Russian Federation. The authors, a group of deputies and senators propose to clarify the signs of assigning individuals to the category of foreign agents requiring established registration on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Among such signs, it is proposed to include participation in political activities in Russia and (or) the purposeful collection of information in the field of military, military technical activities of the Russian Federation, the receipt of which to foreign sources can be used against the security of the country.

Moreover, such activity should be associated with foreign influence, that is the receipt of funds, other property benefits including through intermediaries as well as the receipt of any types of organizational and methodological assistance from foreign sources.

In addition, according to the bill, when mentioning any foreign agent in their materials both an organization and an individual the media will be obliged to supply the materials with an indication that this person an NPO, public association or individual acts as a foreign agent.

A draft law has also been submitted to the State Duma allowing foreign journalists to be recognized as individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent. In the event that a foreign journalist accredited in the Russian Federation carries out activities related to the performance of the functions of a foreign agent, incompatible with his professional activities of a journalist, such a person is included in the list of individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent, indicated in the draft law (1057914-7).

In addition, a bill banning the participation of foreign agents in election campaigns in Russia has been submitted to the State Duma, said Vasily Piskarev, head of the parliamentary commission to investigate the facts of foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation.

We are talking about changes in the legislation on the electoral process in the law On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights, we are making a small addition so that foreign agents cannot participate in election campaigns, Piskarev told journalists on Wednesday. This is a global practice election campaigns are our internal affair, so foreign agents should not get into them, form an agenda, a worldview there.

According to the deputy, the bill was introduced as part of a package of bills jointly with the Federation Council commission for protecting the sovereignty of the Russian Federation from external interference.