The Russian Justice Ministry has added writer Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of the former first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Nikita Khrushchev, to the register of so-called foreign agents.
In addition, economist Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, publicist Vadym Shtepa, journalist Sergei Reznik and activist Aleksei Nesterenko were added to the list of so-called foreign agents.
The legislation on “foreign agents” in Russia appeared in 2012, which allowed the Ministry of Justice to recognise non-profit organisations as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activities.
The criteria by which such activities are defined are not clearly defined in the law, which allows the Russian authorities to prosecute organisations working in the fields of education, culture, healthcare, ecology, and human rights protection.
Subsequently, the Russian Federation created the possibility to recognise media agents and individuals, 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.