Police officers walk past a balloon seller as they control a street during an unsanctioned rally in front of the Russian General Prosecution building in Moscow. The Russian prosecutor general’s office has declared The Moscow Times newspaper to be an “undesirable organization.” The designation means the newspaper popular with those in Russia’s expatriate community must stop any work in Russia.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Russian prosecutor general’s office on July 10 declared The Moscow Times, an online newspaper popular among Russia’s expatriate community, as an “undesirable organization.”

The designation comes amid a crackdown on critical news media and the opposition. It means the newspaper must stop any work in Russia and it subjects any Russian who cooperates with the paper to up to five years in prison.

It is a more severe measure than the “foreign agent” designation applied to the news outlet in November, which subjects individuals and organizations to increased financial scrutiny and requires any of their public material to prominently include notice of being declared a foreign agent.

The Moscow Times already moved its editorial operations out of Russia in 2022 after the passage of a law imposing stiff penalties for material regarded as discrediting the Russian military and its war in Ukraine.

It publishes in English and in Russian, but its Russian-language site was blocked in Russia several months after the Ukraine war began.

In an editors’ note on the decision, the newspaper said “The labelling of The Moscow Times as ‘undesirable’ is the latest of many efforts to suppress our reporting on the truth in Russia and its war in Ukraine. … This designation will make it even more difficult for us to do our jobs, putting reporters and fixers inside Russia at risk of criminal prosecution and making sources even more hesitant to speak to us.

“We refuse to give in to this pressure. We refuse to be silenced,” the newspaper said.

The publication began in 1992 as a daily print paper distributed for free in restaurants, hotels and other locations popular with expatriates, whose presence in Moscow was soaring after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It later reduced its print edition to weekly, then became online only in 2017.

Russia in recent years has methodically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin, branding many as “foreign agents” and some as “undesirable.” Other news outlets declared as undesirable include the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose editor Dmitry Muratov won a Nobel Peace Prize, and the online news site Meduza.

Russia also has imprisoned prominent opposition figures including anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s most persistent domestic foe, and dissidents Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.

Moscow, Russia:

Russia on Friday added respected journalist and Nobel Prize co-recipient Dmitry Muratov to its list of foreign agents, a label authorities commonly use to stifle critics.

The move targeting the editor of Russia’s top independent publication Novaya Gazeta is part of a wider crackdown on respected civil society institutions that has accelerated with Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.

Dmitry Muratov “used foreign platforms to disseminate opinions aimed at forming a negative attitude towards the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Federation,” Russia’s justice ministry said to justify the decision.

The ministry also accused Dmitry Muratov of creating and distributing content from other foreign agents.

“What is there to comment on? For comments, contact the Ministry of Justice”, said Novaya Gazeta’s website.

It added the foreign agents list now included 674 “worthy” people and organisations.

The label, which is reminiscent of the term “enemies of the people” of the Soviet era, adds heavy administrative constraints and requires sources of funding to be disclosed.

It also compels foreign agents to mark all publications — including social media posts — with a tag.

This put foreign agents and people sharing their content at risk of heavy fines.

The designation is part of an array of legislation the Kremlin uses to silence critics, along with the harsher “undesirable organisation” tag.

Since launching troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has stepped up efforts to stamp out dissent.

Most high-profile opponents are behind bars or in exile.

While many independent journalists are working from abroad, Dmitry Muratov was recently seen in Russia.

He is part of the legal team defending his friend Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Russia’s human rights organisation Memorial.

Orlov is on trial over lone pickets against the assault in Ukraine and over an op-ed in French publication Mediapart titled “They wanted fascism, they got it”.

He was charged of discrediting the army, which is part tools Moscow uses against critics of the military operation.

Overall, thousands of ordinary Russians who protested against the Ukraine conflict have been detained.

Many high-profile opposition politicians have been jailed since the offensive began, including Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Putin’s main opposition politician Alexey Navalny has been in prison since 2021.

Repression has accelerated during the assault in Ukraine, but the space for freedom of expression in Russia has been shrinking for years.

In 2021, when Dmitry Muratov co-received the Nobel Peace Prize, he dedicated the award to Novaya Gazeta’s “fallen” journalists who “gave up their lives for their profession.”

Since 2000, Novaya Gazeta has seen six of its journalists and contributors killed, including investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow on President Vladimir Putin’s birthday.

Co-founded by former Soviet leader and another Nobel Peace laureate Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, Novaya Gazeta is one of the few media outlets left in Russia voicing criticism of Putin.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Nobel Peace Prize awarded journalist Dmitry Muratov. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian authorities on September 1 declared newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to be a foreign agent, continuing the country’s moves to suppress critics and independent reporting.

Russian law allows for individuals and organizations receiving funding from abroad to be declared foreign agents, a pejorative term that potentially undermines their credibility with the Russian public. The status also requires designees to mark any publications with a disclaimer stating they are foreign agents.

Mr. Muratov was chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, which was widely respected abroad for its investigative reporting and was frequently critical of the Kremlin. Mr. Muratov was a co-laureate of the 2021 Nobel prize; he later put up his Nobel medal for auction, receiving $103.5 million which he said would be used to aid refugee children from Ukraine.

After Russia enacted harsh laws to punish statements that criticized its military actions in Ukraine or were found to discredit Russian soldiers, Novaya Gazeta announced it would suspend publication until the conflict ended.

Many of its journalists started a new publication called Novaya Gazeta Europe that is based in Latvia.

Russia in recent years has methodically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin, branding many as “foreign agents.” It has has branded some as “undesirable” under a 2015 law that makes membership in such organizations a criminal offense.

It also has imprisoned prominent opposition figures including anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most persistent domestic foe, and dissidents Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.