From: Feminist Anti-War Resistance

December 29, 2022

We have been declared “foreign agents”. What now?

We sought advice from brilliant lawyers of the human rights project “First Department” on our new status, given to us by the Ministry of Justice on New Year’s Eve. So here’s what we figured out:

1. Since we are not going to put a disclaimer (with our status), the FAR participants listed in the ministry’s register are the ones facing all the risks of fines. These are our publicly-known coordinators: Лёля Нордик, Дарья Серенко and Элла Россман.

2. If you are not a media outlet (and your personal blog is not considered a media outlet!), you can continue reposting us without specifying that FAR is a “foreign agent”. The less this disclaimer crops up online, the better! Also, reposting our posts does not make you a “foreign agent”, it is not as contagious as it seems.

3. Since we are a grassroots movement and not a registered organization, it is unclear what kind of reports the Ministry of Justice expects from us. According to the law, now Dasha, Lolija and Ella must report to them. In our situation, we can let ourselves not do it.

4. In the event that our “foreign agent” status has any consequences for any of the activists in Russia (which, as we were told, is very unlikely, but in our country, no options can ever be ruled out), we will provide legal and any other assistance.

Our position on our “foreign agent” status manifests itself in our refusal to put the respective disclaimer: we do not recognize this status (conceived by the Ministry of Justice as stigmatizing), we are not going to take it upon ourselves and are ready to challenge the ministry’s decision in court. But not because we believe in a Russian fair court, but because it is important for us to create precedents in the field of human rights and to turn the tables on the administrative apparatus. Later we will announce which organization will represent our interests.

Bye, the Ministry of Justice, see you in court!