Latest news with #foreignagent
South China Morning Post
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
The pain of Russian musicians and other creatives at home and abroad explored by filmmaker
Russian filmmaker Roman 'Roma' Liberov had long been fascinated by writers who fled his country after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He never imagined that he would one day become an exile himself. In January 2021, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, Liberov left Russia because of a powerful conviction that its people had become 'hostages of the state' and that a long-simmering conflict with Ukraine would erupt into full-scale war. Thirteen months later, his fears became reality when Russia invaded its neighbour. In 2023, he was designated a 'foreign agent', making it very risky to return. Yet even now, he says he suffers doubts, and wonders whether he should have stayed. Russian pianist Pavel Kushnir died in a Siberian prison in July 2024, where he had launched a hunger strike while awaiting trial on charges of inciting terrorism, after posting anti-war material online. Photo: Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore Despite throwing himself into projects in his adopted home of Britain, he worries that by choosing to leave, he cut himself off from mainstream Russian culture.
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Russia convicts a prominent election monitoring activist and sentences him to 5 years in prison
A court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group on charges of organizing the work of an 'undesirable' organization and sentenced him to five years in prison. Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading election watchdog Golos, has rejected the charges as politically motivated. The case against him is part of the monthslong crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after invading Ukraine in 2022. After a judge of the Basmanny District Court delivered the verdict, Melkonyants, 44, told several dozen supporters and journalists from the glass defendant's cage: 'Don't worry, I'm not despairing. You shouldn't despair either!' Golos has monitored for and exposed violations in every major election in Russia since it was founded in 2000. Over the years, it has faced mounting pressure from the authorities. In 2013, the group was designated as a 'foreign agent' — a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Three years later, it was liquidated as a non-governmental organization by Russia's Justice Ministry. Golos has continued to operate without registering as an NGO, exposing violations in various elections, and in 2021 it was added to a new registry of 'foreign agents,' created by the Justice Ministry for groups that are not registered as a legal entity in Russia. It has not been designated as 'undesirable' — a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense. But when it was an NGO, it was a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, a group that was declared 'undesirable' in Russia in 2021, and the charges against Melkonyants stemmed from that. The defense argued that when ENEMO was outlawed in Russia, Golos wasn't a member, and Melkonyants had nothing to do with it. Melkonyants, a renowned election expert and lawyer by training, was arrested in August 2023 and has been in custody ever since. Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia's Central Election Commission, the country's main election authority, spoke out in his support at the time, telling Russian business daily Vedomosti about the case: 'I would really like to hope that they will handle this objectively. Because his criticism, often professional, helped us a lot sometimes.' Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years that intensified significantly amid the war in Ukraine. Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down, labeled as 'foreign agents' or outlawed as 'undesirable.' Hundreds of activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges. Melkonyants' defense team said after the verdict that they will appeal. Lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told reporters that 'there is no evidence" in the case that he and others on the defense team consider 'politically motivated, pretentious.' "We will fight for Grigory's freedom, because an illegal, unjust verdict should not exist. It should not stand (in the appeal proceedings). We all hope that the law will prevail,' Biryukov said. Memorial, Russia's prominent human rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated Melkonyants as a political prisoner.
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Russia Sentences Prominent Election Expert to 5 Years in Prison
The head of Russia's only independent election watchdog was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison after being convicted of working with an 'undesirable' organization, according to Russian news agencies and his attorney. Grigory Melkonyants, a co-founder of the Russian election monitoring group Golos, was jailed in 2023 after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and led a broad crackdown at home. Charged with 'organizing the activities of an undesirable organization,' Mr. Melkonyants, 44, pleaded not guilty when his trial opened last September. On Wednesday, he was convicted in a Moscow court and sentenced to five years in a prison colony, his lawyer, Mikhail Biryukov, told The New York Times. Golos, which was founded in 2000 and documented widespread election fraud, was labeled a 'foreign agent' by the Russian authorities in 2013. But the charges against Mr. Melkonyants relate to the group's past affiliation with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which the Russian authorities declared 'undesirable' in 2021 — making any association with it a potential crime. Golos has said it terminated its participation with the association following the decision. The 'undesirable' label has been used to outlaw unwanted groups, including NGOs and media organizations, and crack down on dissent. But Mr. Melkonyants was apolitical, Roman Udot, a longtime colleague who lives in exile, said. He noted that while countless civil activists fled Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Melkonyants insisted on staying put and focusing on his expertise, without taking sides. Golos — which means 'vote' in Russian — documented extensive voting irregularities during the 2011 parliamentary elections. Anger about those violations sparked the biggest protests to date against Mr. Putin's rule and spurred a broader opposition movement led by the late Aleksei A. Navalny. After mounting pressure from the Russian authorities, Golos was designated a foreign agent in 2013. But it was only after the war in Ukraine started that Russia's security services cracked down harder on the group, Mr. Udot said. Following his arrest, Mr. Melkonyants was listed as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, which said the election expert was being 'persecuted solely for his civil activism.'
Arab News
14-05-2025
- Arab News
Germany arrests three Ukrainians suspected of spying in exploding parcel plot
BERLIN: Germany has arrested three Ukrainian nationals on suspicion of foreign agent activity linked to the shipment of parcels containing explosive devices, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The suspects are believed to have been in contact with individuals working for Russian state institutions, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
