Foreign agent Friday: journalists Oleg Kashin, Alexey Pivovarov and artist Yulia Tsvetkova added to Russia’s ‘foreign agent’ list

The Russian Ministry of Justice has placed journalists Oleg Kashin and Alexey Pivovarov to the list of media outlets acting as foreign agents.

Artist and activist Yulia Tsvetkova was also included on the foreign agent register. In 2019, she was accused of “disseminating pornography” for posting cartoonish drawings of naked female bodies promoting body positivity in the Vagina Monologues online community on VK. She faces up to six years in prison.

The updated list also includes RFE/RFL reporter Mikhail Sokolov, activist of the union of medical workers Irina Danilovich, as well as political analyst and senior research fellow at Chatham House Nikolai Petrov.

Yevgeny Chichvarkin was included on the list of individuals acting as foreign agents.

Last week, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Women’s Voice, a women’s rights organisation from Russia’s Tomsk, to the list of NGOs acting as foreign agents.