The deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on November 15 supported the amendment, which legitimizes the recognition of foreign media as foreign agents. This was reported by Interfax agency.
According to the amendment, foreign media can be recognized as foreign agents "regardless of their organizational and legal form" if they are financed by foreign countries.
The State Duma argues that the norm will not apply to Russian media, including those with the share of foreign capital.
This amendment was unanimously supported in the third reading, which will allow the Ministry of Justice to restrict the work of foreign media on legal grounds. Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin said that this decision is a response to similar actions of the United States.
As it was reported earlier Petr Tolstoy, the Vice Speaker of State Duma of Russia claimed that the representatives of four parties agreed on the amendments to the Russian legislation towards the ranking of the foreign mass media to the foreign agents.
‘The mass media registered in the territory of another state or receiving money or other funds from the foreign establishments can be recognized as the foreign agents regardless their legal organization form’, Tolstoy said.
Moreover, it is provided to implement the duty of such mass media to mark their belonging to this category.
Also, he claimed that the draft law on the mass media as the foreign agents does not provide the automatic award of the status of the foreign agent to all foreign mass media. However, if mass media which falls under this status refuses to register it will be banned from the work in Russia.
