Споры о признании «иностранным агентом» в зеркале судебных решений за 2020–2022 гг.

Abstract

The paper addresses the “foreign agents” legislation of the RF and describes its main features. The focal point of the analysis is the extremely broad definition of “political activity”. Analyzing most recent Russian case law, the author comments on the cases of the Institute of Law and Public Policy, “No to Violence” (“Nasiliyu Net”) Center, the “Legal Initiative” and “Civil Initiative against environmental crimes” foundations and other NGOs that have been labeled “foreign agents”. The paper highlights two key problems: (1) absence of criteria for distinguishing between political activities and other types of activities and (2) in many cases courts offer an excessively broad interpretation of provisions of Art. 2 (6) of Federal law “On NGOs”, which state that it’s the fact of receiving foreign financial assistance that matters (irrespective of the goals of such financing). Status of foreign agents as envisaged in the Russian legislation brings up important issues of compliance of this legislation with the constitutional principles of legal certainty and presumption of innocence.