Foreign agents: new regulations

On June 29, the State Duma adopted the draft federal law “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence”¹ (“Draft law”) in the third reading. The Draft law establishes new criteria for recognizing a person as a foreign agent and expands the list of persons who can be recognized as them.

The current regulation² provides for two criteria for recognizing a person as a foreign agent: carrying out political activities and receiving any foreign funding. Moreover, only an individual, a non-commercial organization, a public association and the media can be recognized as a foreign agent³.

The Draft law expands the list of persons who can be recognized as foreign agents. The list includes:

• individuals (regardless of their nationality);
• legal entities (regardless of their form of incorporation);
• public associations operating without the formation of a legal entity;
• foreign structures without the formation of a legal entity;
• other associations of persons.

Along with these persons, the Draft law provides for a list of persons who cannot be recognized as foreign agents:

• public authorities, persons controlled⁴ by the Russian Federation, subjects of the Russian Federation, municipalities, public law companies, state-owned companies, state corporations, persons controlled by them, management bodies of state extra-budgetary funds;
• religious organizations;
• political parties;
• officials of international (interstate, intergovernmental) organizations who have entered Russia in connection with the performance of official duties, and employees of representative offices of such organizations in Russia or employees of representative offices and officials of other organizations who have been granted a status similar to that of such organizations;
• heads of diplomatic missions and heads of consular offices of foreign states in Russia, members of the diplomatic staff, consular officials, as well as members of the administrative and technical staff of diplomatic missions or consular offices of foreign states in Russia;
• holders of diplomatic, service passports (including special, official and other passports recognized by Russia in this capacity) and officials of foreign states who entered Russia in connection with the performance of official duties;
• employees and members of the administrative and technical staff of the military attaché offices, trade missions and other representative offices of state authorities of foreign states;
• employers’ associations, chambers of commerce and industry.

As established by the Draft law, the following two criteria shall be met to recognize a person as a foreign agent:

1. The person receives support and (or) is under foreign influence in another form

   Foreign influence means the provision of support by a foreign source or the exertion of influence on the relevant person, including through coercion, persuasion and other means. Support is defined as the provision of funds, property, other assistance (organizational, methodological, scientific and technical, etc.) to a person from foreign sources.

2. The person performs certain types of activities established by Article 4 of the Draft law.

The types of activities are established by art. 4 of the Draft law and include:

• political activity;
• purposeful collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of Russia;
• distribution of messages and materials intended for an unlimited number of persons and (or) participation in their creation;
• financing of the above-mentioned activities.

Recognition of the status of a foreign agent for a person entails the imposition of certain duties on it: it shall notify third parties, its founders (participants), beneficiaries, employees about the existence of such a status; accompany the materials distributed by it with an indication of the existence of this status; conduct an annual audit of its accounting (financial) statements, etc.

Persons that meet the criteria to recognize a person as a foreign agent are subject to inclusion in the Register of Foreign Agents. At the same time, along with it, the Draft law introduces a Register of individuals affiliated with foreign agents. Nevertheless, the inclusion of a person in the specified register does not entail the extension of the requirements and restrictions established for foreign agents to them. Individuals affiliated with foreign agents shall report the existence of such a status in a limited number of cases related to the electoral process in the territory of Russia⁵ (e.g., information about the existence of such a status should be included in the ballot if the specified person is a candidate for the presidency, etc.).

Thus, the Draft law introduces new provisions into the current legal regulation of the status of foreign agents. If adopted, it will enter into force on December 1, 2022.

¹ Draft law No. №113045-8 “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence” // URL: https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/113045-8#bh_histras
² Clause 6 of art. 2 of Federal Law No. 7-FZ of 12.01.1996 “On non-commercial organizations”; clause 1 of art. 2.1 of Federal Law No. 272-FZ of 28.12.2012 “On measures of influence on persons involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation”
³ Clause 3 of art. 6 of the Law of the Russian Federation No. 2124-1 of 27.12.1991 “On Mass Media”; clause 6 of art. 2 of Federal Law No. 7-FZ of 12.01.1996 “On non-commercial organizations”; clause 1 of art. 2.1 of Federal Law No. 272-FZ of 28.12.2012 “On measures of influence on persons involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation”
⁴ A controlled person is a legal entity that is under direct or indirect control, expressed in the obligation to execute instructions, orders, perform actions determined in another way
⁵ Federal Law No. 19-FZ of 10.01.2003 “ About election of the President of the Russian Federation”; Federal Law No. 20-FZ of 22.02.2014 “ About election of deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation ”