The Moscow Times says that its labeling as an "undesirable organization" by Russia is just the "latest of many efforts to suppress our reporting on the truth in Russia and its war in Ukraine."
Russia's Prosecutor-General's Office announced on July 10 that it was applying the label to the well-respected online newspaper, claiming “the outlet's work is directed to discrediting the decisions by the Russian Federation's leadership in both internal and external policies."
The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, is a Kremlin-backed regulation on organizations that receive funding from foreign sources.
The label has been applied to more than 170 organizations -- including media outlets, religious organizations, and NGOs involved in political, cultural, and educational activities -- since Moscow began using the classification.
It effectively bans the organizations outright.
The Moscow Times was founded in Russia in 1992 but moved its editorial operations from Russia to the Netherlands in 2022 after the passage of a law imposing stiff penalties for publishing anything that the government deems discredits the Russian military and its war in Ukraine.
The new “undesirable” designation will ban the bilingual Russian-English newspaper from working inside Russia and put its employees at risk of imprisonment. Audience engagement with the outlet, including sharing content online, is also criminalized.
Russian citizens face up to five years in prison for cooperating with "undesirable" organizations or aiding in their financing within Russia.
In a July 10 statement, The Moscow Times noted previous efforts by Russia to suppress its coverage, including the blocking of its website and designating it a "foreign agent."
The Moscow Times acknowledged that the designation would make it even more difficult to report in Russia, "putting reporters and fixers inside Russia at risk of criminal prosecution and making sources even more hesitant to speak to us."
However, the newspaper said it would not give in to pressure by the Russian authorities: "We refuse to be silenced."