In early December 2019, Vladimir Putin signed a law that will allow Russia to declare journalists and bloggers as “foreign agents” in a move critics say will allow the Kremlin to target government critics.
Under the vaguely worded law, Russians and foreigners who work with media or distribute their content and receive money from abroad would be declared foreign agents, potentially exposing journalists, their sources, or even those who share material on social networks to foreign agent status.
Under the law, all material published by an individual who receives funds from abroad will be labeled as having been distributed by a foreign agent. The law also says that any individual who distributes foreign media could be labeled a foreign agent.
The three-tier system imposes fines for repeat offenders up to 100,000 rubles ($1,600) for ordinary citizens, 200,000 rubles ($3,200) for public officials and 5 million rubles ($80,000) for legal entities. In addition to the 100,000 ruble fine, ordinary citizens can be jailed for up to 15 days if they are found guilty of violating the “foreign agent” law twice or more within one year.
The fines come into force Feb. 1, 2020.
The status of a foreign agent, in particular, means the need for mandatory labeling of all published materials (for example, individual tweets and posts on social networks), additional reporting to the authorities about their activities and expenditures, and public disclosure of such information. The same law allows restricting access to the websites of foreign media agents if they are brought to administrative responsibility