Russian police raid the home of an investigative journalist

In recent months, the government has designated several independent media outlets and journalists as foreign agents with a label that implies additional government control and carries strong derogatory implications that could discredit the recipients.

Targeted stores include VTimes and Jellyfish. VTimes then closed, citing the loss of advertisers, and Jellyfish launched a crowdfunding campaign after facing the same problem.

The Insider was the last addition to the list. The Latvian-based news agency has teamed up with the Bellingcat research team to investigate high-profile cases such as the poisonings of former Russian spy Sergei Sripal and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The Russian Ministry of Justice has acted under a law used to designate foreign agents as NGOs, the media, and foreign-funded individuals engaged in activities that are loosely described as policies.

Another law is used to exclude groups that are considered undesirable and makes participation in them a criminal offense. It was used to ban 41 groups, including opposition groups, foreign NGOs and, more recently, its publisher Work, an online research store.

The Ministry of Justice last week also appointed two Work journalists and three other journalists as foreign agents.

Loading

Russia has used the law to impose heavy fines on US-funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty for failing to recognize its material as being produced by foreign agents. The broadcaster has asked the European Court of Human Rights to intervene.

According The Insider, the searches targeting Dobrokotov may be related to a slander case that started in April after a complaint by a Dutch blogger. The Insider accused Max van der Werff of collaborating with Russian intelligence and military services to spread false information, disputing the findings of the official investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, which killed all 298 people on board.

The legal aid team said Dobrokotov was a witness in a criminal case against unknown individuals on a defamation charge, which began via a tweet on Dobrokotov’s account containing misinformation about the wrecked Boeing MH-17.

Loading

Earlier this week, Russian authorities blocked about 50 websites linked to jailed opposition leader Navalny. The move comes just a month after a Moscow court banned Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and a network of regional offices as extremist in a decision that prevents people linked to the groups from seeking public office and expose them to a long prison sentence.

NO

Get a note directly from our strangers correspondents for what makes headlines around the world. Subscribe to the weekly What in the World newsletter here.