The Russian Supreme Court has rejected appeals filed by journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya and activist Darya Apakhonchich against rulings by lower courts refusing to delete their names from the country's so-called registry of foreign agents.
After the Supreme Court judge pronounced his decision on June 8, Savitskaya told RFE/RL that after, Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, she was "proud to be a foreign agent."
"I am different, I am not with this country that launched the war...I know now that I am an agent of peace that is banned in Russia," said Savitskaya, who is from Russia's northwestern city of Pskov.
Savitskaya and Apakhonchich, an activist from St. Petersburg who is not engaged in journalism but had posted articles from "foreign agent" media, including RFE/RL, on social networks, were among the first individuals in Russia to be included on the government's list of "media organizations fulfilling the functions of foreign agents," in December 2020.
Russian activist Darya Apakhonchich (file photo)
They were named along with noted rights activist Lev Ponomaryov and journalists Denis Kamalyagin from Pskov and Sergei Markelov from the northwestern region of Karelia. The three of them are out of Russia now.
First passed in 2012, Russia's "foreign agent" legislation initially targeted nongovernmental organizations accused of having received foreign funding. But it has undergone numerous modifications to include foreign media organizations as well as individuals.
Human Rights Watch has criticized the legislation -- which subjects those blacklisted to restrictions, fines, and bans -- as "restrictive" and intended "to demonize independent groups."