Kirill Katkov has commented for Telesputnik on the blogger’s exclusion from the list of foreign agents

The Russian Ministry of Justice has removed Nikolai Sobolev, one of the local YouTube bloggers, from the register of foreign agents. The reason for his inclusion in the blacklist, where the blogger had been for just over a year, was his statements about a special military operation.

Kirill Katkov, Associate at Maxima Legal, reminded Telesputnik that foreign agents are obliged to mark their materials with an appropriate label, as well as to submit a report on their activities to the Ministry of Justice every six months, including information on foreign sources of income and the amount of funds received from these sources.

At the same time, as the expert noted, the legal mechanism for removing the status of a foreign agent is provided for in the relevant law (the Federal Law “On Control over the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence”). The procedure of exclusion from the register of foreign agents is initiated either by a foreign agent itself or by the Ministry of Justice, if it receives information about the presence of grounds for withdrawal of the foreign agent status from the person. The decision on exclusion or refusal of exclusion is made by the Ministry of Justice based on the results of an unscheduled inspection.

According to Kirill Katkov, in the Ministry of Justice’s report, the reason for the removal of Nikolai Sobolev from the register of foreign agents is “loss of signs of a foreign agent”. Based on Sobolev’s words, voiced in the media, the reason for removal from the register was the fact that within a year after inclusion there he did not receive funds from foreign sources, which was established by the Ministry of Justice during the audit, which was initiated by the blogger himself.

To read the fuull article (in Russian), please, see Telesputnik magazine`s website >>>