Today, a session was held in the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow regarding the 'undesirability' of the Norwegian online newspaper Barents Observer. The court refused to declare the prosecutor's order illegal and to exclude the online newspaper from the list of 'undesirable organizations'. It was revealed during the session that the FSB is involved in the process of recognizing an organization as undesirable, although the decision is formally made by the Prosecutor General's Office in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The 'First Department' project* has a report signed by the head of the 1st Service (counterintelligence) of the FSB of Russia, Vladislav Menshchikov. The intelligence service provides the Prosecutor General's Office with screenshots and links to the publication's materials and states that the organization 'poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and is directed against state security'.
In addition to the intelligence service, according to the case materials, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent its report to the Prosecutor General's Office, noting a 'pronounced anti-Russian orientation'. Roskomnadzor also sent its review, stating that the publication's website has not been accessible in Russia since 2019.
As 'First Department' writes, the volume of all these reports is more than 250 pages. Most of them consist of quotes from Barents Observer materials, arguments from controlling and law enforcement agencies, and screenshots of texts with so-called 'anti-Russian propaganda'.
The Barents Observer publishes materials in English, Russian, and Chinese. The publication's materials are dedicated to events in the Barents Sea region, and since the beginning of the war, the newspaper has been covering events in Ukraine.
The Prosecutor General's Office recognized The Barents Observer as an 'undesirable' organization in February of this year, stating that the publication publishes materials with a 'distinctly anti-Russian orientation', and many authors are 'little-known foreign agents in the professional community' and people included in the list of 'terrorists and extremists', and their activities are funded by foreign non-governmental organizations already included in the list of 'undesirable' organizations.
* Recognized as a 'foreign agent' in Russia.