Russia’s Ministry of Justice included on Friday the list of foreign agents of two opponents of the Kremlin and the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and chess player Garry Kasparov, according to Moscow.
The inclusion of Khodorkovsky and Kasparov, both in exile, on the list is due to their political activities with foreign funds from the United States and Ukraine, according to the official statement.
Khodorkovsky, who was Russia’s richest man when he was head of oil company Yukos, was pardoned by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in 2013 after serving ten years in prison, and has since devoted himself to supporting the democratic opposition.
One of its key members was Kasparov, who left chess to join the protest movement despite going into exile after being arrested for biting a police officer ten years ago.
Both have given numerous interviews in the Western press in the past three months to denounce Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and to urge the United States and the European Union to approve sanctions against Moscow.
The list of foreign agents began to be built at the end of December 2020, with the inclusion of journalists and activists, most notably Lev Ponomaryov, the oldest human rights defender who went into exile in Georgia in part because of persecution. From the Russian security services.
Persons declared to be foreign agents cannot take office in the Russian public administration or access state secrets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has championed the foreign agents law as a way to limit Western interference in Russian political life.
It also argues that while the opposition sees it as a tool to persecute those who are most critical of the Kremlin, it repeats existing practices in other countries, primarily the United States.
source: Noticias
