Russian legislators estimated when passing the law that “there is an express desire to destabilize the country from abroad.”
Natalia Gopanenko received on September 24 a summons from the Russian inspection body, «Roskomnadzor», to go to its headquarters in Kolomna in order to proceed with the completion of the «violation protocol» of the «foreign agent» law, a controversial rule that makes the work of the Russian press extremely difficult and whose name evokes the Stalinist term “enemy or traitor to the people.”
Gopanenko is the director of the Russian digital publication E-vesti.ru. Her husband, Andrés Landabaso, son of “children of war”, Hispanicist and professor, is scientific director, co-owner and editor of the medium. The fault committed by her was that in an article that she signed on August 2 under the title “Russia reinforces the conflictive borders with Afghanistan” she cited the opinion of the Carnegie Moscow Center, which is a subsidiary of the American organization Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , without noting that such an institution is listed by the Russian Ministry of Justice as a “foreign agent.” Such an entry is mandatory for any publication, whenever you quote a “foreign agent”, if you do not want to be fined or risk being doomed to closure.
“It was a real surprise to receive the notification from the Roskomnadzor, since the content of my article is totally innocuous in terms of the absence of criticism of the Russian authorities,” says Gopanenko. The first step that she and her husband took was to send a letter to the Roskomnadzor requesting that they establish the place of the summons in Moscow and not in Kolomna, which is 152 kilometers southeast of Moscow, in order to avoid displacement. Especially because of the fact that E-vesti.ru is registered precisely in the Russian capital.
“We have not received a response to our request and we still do not know if we will have to pay a fine and in what amount,” says Landabaso. In his words, “the sanction may not be excessively harsh, but it would be in the case of recidivism and, if it is repeated for the third time, the media would be ordered to cease its activity.”
The director of E-vesti.ru, however, admits that in his articles he has criticized the economic policy of the Russian Government, but, he assures, “from scientific positions.” The truth is that, in his opinion, “we and our magazine are being subjected to real harassment. Not only because of the request of the Roskomnadzor, but also with regard to my work as an intellectual, since, despite my knowledge and numerous published books, I have been marginalized by the organizers of the recent International Congress of Russian Hispanists », held a few years ago. days in the premises of the Cervantes Institute in Moscow. He himself writes an article in his publication criticizing it.
Worse are those who, like Carnegie, are already classified as a “foreign agent”, be they NGOs, the media or individuals. Liudmila Kuzminá, a human rights activist from the Russian city of Samara recognized as a “foreign agent”, maintains that “by law I am required to register with the Tax Inspectorate as a legal person, since the Ministry of Justice considers me a foreign agent, but they have rejected it to me ». Kuzminá is now afraid of receiving a hefty fine.
The Russian legislators considered when approving the law that “there is an express desire to destabilize the country from abroad”, which is why the law was approved that makes any platform, even privately, that disseminates in Russia an enemy or traitor information or opinions on the Internet with foreign funding. Thus, not only NGOs, bloggers or journalists, but anyone, through social networks, whose opinions or disclosures are annoying to the authorities and receive money from another country must register with the Russian Ministry of Justice as a “foreign agent ». Failure to do so will expose offenders to serious penalties, even criminally.
Declare wages
Such a denomination entails the obligation to periodically declare the sums received from outside and how they are spent, with its logical tax implications. Also to explain in detail through periodic reports the activity that develops. Not only those who receive funding from outside the country are “foreign agents”, but also those who disseminate their materials, as it may end up happening with E-vesti.ru.
Especially Kafkaesque is the situation experienced by the opposition channel “Dozhd”, which, after showing that it does not receive any money from abroad, cannot get off the list of foreign agents. Its director, Tijon Dziadkó, points out that “the law does not contemplate a procedure for whoever was on the list to be excluded later” and plans to file a lawsuit in this regard.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), has already warned that the norm represents “one more step towards restricting the independence of the media in Russia by creating an intimidating atmosphere”, which in turn seeks to make people think twice about it. express your point of view on the Internet. The OSCE has repeatedly urged Russia to banish the term “foreign agent” and even more to stop defining it in its legislation.
The recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitry Murátov, editor of the legendary Russian newspaper “New Gazeta”, six of whose journalists were assassinated, including Anna Politkovskaya, said last week directly in the face of President Vladimir Putin, during the Valdai Forum, which “is a law without prior judgment. One is appointed foreign agent and there is no discussion of the parties, presentation of evidence or verdict. They only hang the stigma on you and it’s over ». Putin replied that “the law does not prohibit defending a certain position, but verifying the existence of foreign financing.” Days before, the Russian president warned Murátov that the Nobel Prize “is not going to be a shield” that frees him from being considered a “foreign agent”, if there were reasons for it.
In a joint statement, the members of the Coalition for Media Freedom (Germany, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Ukraine) expressed “deep concern” on Thursday about “increasing harassment” by the Russian authorities “of journalists and independent media.”
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