The writer Dmytro Bykov will be sentenced for not having an “innoagent” marking

An administrative protocol was drawn up against the writer Dmytro Bykov for the absence of the mandatory “foreign agent” marking in his publications. The court session will be held on June 23 in the Nikulin District Court of Moscow. “Mediazona” drew attention to the case card. It is not specified what kind of publications we are talking about.

“Failure to perform the duties of a foreign agent” is punishable by a fine of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles. This is not Bykov’s first similar violation: in October last year, the same Nikulin court already fined the writer 10,000 rubles under the same article.

It also became known on Friday that the court in Yekaterinburg fined political scientist Fyodor Krasheninnikov 30,000 rubles for not marking “foreign agent”.

The Ministry of Justice of Russia entered Dmitry Bykov in the register of so-called “foreign agents” on July 29, 2022. Together with him, the editor-in-chief of the New Times magazine Yevgenia Albats and the co-founder of the Nuzhna pomość fund Mitya Aleshkovsky were included in the list of the Ministry of Justice that day. Fyodor Krasheninnikov became a member of this list last September.

• Legislation on “foreign agents” in Russia appeared in 2012. The law allowed the Ministry of Justice to recognize non-profit organizations as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and engage in political activity. The criteria by which such activity is determined are not clearly defined in the law, which allows the authorities to pursue organizations working in the fields of education, culture, health care, ecology, and protection of human rights.
• Subsequently, it became possible to recognize mass media and individuals as “foreign agents”, including those who do not receive foreign funding, but “are under foreign influence”. Russian legislation does not specify what exactly should be considered foreign influence.