The orientalist, author of a Telegram channel about the Middle East, Ruslan Suleymanov, and journalist Nino Rosebashvili, who runs a YouTube channel with 235 thousand subscribers, according to the Ministry of Justice, 'discredited' the Russian authorities and opposed the war in Ukraine, as well as interacted with 'foreign agents' and 'undesirable' organizations.
The same claims are made by the department against Dmitry Chernyshevsky, a former deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma, who runs his own YouTube channel with 279 thousand subscribers.
Journalist Irina Novik from the publication 'That's How'* also 'created a negative image of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation'.
The project 'Angry Chuvashia' with more than 30 thousand subscribers on Telegram was created by the former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters** in Cheboksary, Semyon Kochkin, who was included in the 'foreign agents' registry back in 2022. Now the Ministry claims that Kochkin's project 'discredits' the Russian authorities, opposes the war in Ukraine, and spreads materials of 'foreign agents' and 'undesirable' organizations.
The project 'Ust-Kut24', which reports on events in the Irkutsk region, not only opposed the war but also 'created a negative image' of the Russian army.
The unified registry of 'foreign agents', which already has more than a thousand entries, has been maintained since December 1, 2022, and includes individuals, registered and unregistered non-profit and non-governmental organizations. Currently, it has almost 1100 entries. 'Foreign agents' are required to publish texts and messages with a notification that they are made by a 'foreign agent'. For evading the duties of a 'foreign agent', administrative fines and criminal liability are provided.
'Foreign agents' are prohibited from placing advertisements, and the 'foreign agents' themselves are banned from participating in elections, teaching, and engaging in educational activities. Also, all income of 'foreign agents' in Russia, including the sale and rental of real estate, will be deposited into a special ruble account, which can only be accessed after the status of 'foreign agent' is removed.
The Ministry of Finance proposed to increase the personal income tax for 'foreign agents' to 30% with the maximum current rate being 22%.
* Recognized as a 'foreign agent' in Russia.
** Recognized as an 'extremist' organization in Russia.