The Russian Ministry of Justice has added Sergey Markov, a pro-government political scientist and former State Duma deputy (in 2007-2011) from United Russia, to the register of “foreign agents”.
Markov is a regular participant in socio-political talk shows on Russian federal channels and radio stations. The political scientist was Vladimir Putin’s proxy in the 2012 election and was also a member of the Russian Public Chamber.
In July, Z-bloggers criticised Markov for his participation in the Shusha Global Media Forum in Azerbaijan, where the country’s president Ilham Aliyev spoke. The forum took place against the backdrop of a diplomatic scandal between Moscow and Baku.
The Justice Ministry explained its decision to declare the political scientist a “foreign agent” by the fact that he had participated in the creation of materials of “foreign agents” and dissemination of their messages, as well as “spreading unreliable information” about the decision of the Russian authorities.
Markov told the publication “cautiously” that his inclusion in the register was a “mistake and slander.” “It seems to me that this is some kind of slander, because, well, firstly, I’m not a foreign agent, secondly, I didn’t have any contacts. Well, sometimes they can make a mistake somehow. I know nothing about it,” the political scientist commented on the decision.
On 22 August, the agency also declared blogger Dmitry Nyuberg, archpriest Andrei Kordochkin, activist Radzhana Dugarova, the projects Tamizdat and Alif TV as “foreign agents”.