There will be more enemies: the State Duma wants to add to the foreign agents also "the persons affiliated with them"

Sergey Baimukhametov

Who are you affiliated with, citizen? Perhaps such a question will become commonplace (seriously or ironically) in all elections to be held in Russia from April 2021. The State Duma in the third reading adopted a law on the participation of foreign agents and persons affiliated with them.

So, if you are an "individual - a foreign agent" or are affiliated with a foreign agent, you can nominate yourself in the elections, but you must notify voters about it. That is, to include this information in subscription lists (as the law says: "after the patronymic"), in online publications and in the media. In campaign materials, this information, as prescribed by the law, “must be clearly visible (clearly distinguishable by ear) and occupy at least 15 percent of the area (volume) of the campaign material”. That is, one-sixth of the entire poster stand - a few words in huge letters? And in radio and television programs with your participation, every 6 minutes you have to report and repeat for a whole minute: "Foreign agent" or: "Affiliated with a foreign agent"?

If we have already got used to the phrase “foreign agent”, then there is something new in the current amendments to the law. A new concept is introduced - “a person affiliated with a foreign agent”.

It will be considered a candidate who, two years before the appointment of the election, was or is “a member of the governing bodies, is (was) the founder, head, employee of a foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent, another person (? - S.B.), information about which is included in the register of foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent”. And also he was or is a member of the governing bodies of an NCO-foreign agent, or was its founder, leader or employee (emphasis added - S.B.).

Today we have 75 non-profit organizations (NPO) on the list of foreign agents. Starting from the regional public charitable organization for assistance to refugees and migrants "Civic Assistance", the St. Petersburg Charitable Foundation "Humanitarian Action" and ending with the International Historical, Educational, Charitable and Human Rights Society "Memorial".

Separately, the list of foreign agents includes six more regional divisions of Memorial, which are working in such areas, in particular: the history of the Gulag, persecution for faith, victims of two dictatorships, the history of dissent in the USSR and others.

So, if you work or worked two years ago as a janitor, system administrator, secretary or consultant at Memorial (any other of the 75 NGOs), you must wear a badge on your chest when you become a candidate for deputy, mayor, governor or president ... sorry ... notify at all angles that you are “a person affiliated with a foreign agent”.

Also, citizens who are engaged in political activities and received money or property from foreign agents will henceforth be considered a person affiliated with a foreign agent.

This means that if you, a future candidate for deputies, mayors, governors or presidents, read a lecture at Memorial (another friend of 75 NGOs) and received money earned or a souvenir gift for this, you are already “affiliated”. And you must wear it on your chest... sorry again... notify at all angles that you are "a person affiliated with a foreign agent".

Finally, what is an “affiliate”? What is written in explanatory and even special dictionaries does not matter in this case. What do our laws say, how do they define an affiliate?

I am quoting Federal Law of July 26, 2006 N 135-FZ:

"Affiliated persons - individuals and legal entities capable of influencing the activities of legal entities and (or) individuals engaged in entrepreneurial activity". (Highlighted by me - S.B.)

The law speaks only of entrepreneurial activity.

But elections are different. This is a political activity.

The definition of "foreign agent - an individual" is given in the Federal Law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in terms of establishing additional measures to counter threats to national security" dated 30.12.2020 N 481-FZ.

It also provides a definition of political activity and forms of political activity.

But there is no mention of "affiliated persons" either.

Does it mean that in the just adopted law on affiliated persons - candidates for deputies, mayors, governors or presidents, there is no legal, legal definition of an “affiliated person”?

NOTE. The clauses "wearing a sign on the chest" are explained by some knowledge of well-known history, in particular, by the fact that in the countries occupied by Nazi Germany, persons of one of the ethnic groups were ordered to sew on the chest and back a special distinctive sign - a yellow star.