Nika Belotserkovskaya

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has updated the list of persons serving as foreign agents: actress Tatyana Lazareva, blogger Nika Belotserkovskaya and politician Ilya Yashin were added to it. The ministry’s website states that they receive funding from Ukraine.

Tatyana Lazareva, currently in Spain, openly opposes the Russian military special operation in Ukraine and often talks about the situation on social networks and in interviews.

Nika Belotserkovskaya, who had previously raised her voice against special operations, was tried in March for “discrediting the RF Armed Forces” based on her Instagram posts*. In May, a court arrested Belotserkovskaya in absentia: she faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 3 million rubles “for knowingly spreading false information about the actions of the Russian Armed Forces.” Belotserkovskaya has been living abroad for many years: the blogger owns a villa in France, where she hosted refugees from Ukraine after the start of a military special operation.

The blogger commented on the news on Instagram*.

Ilya Yashin was previously on trial for making false news about the RF Armed Forces. The court arrested the politician for two months.

Politician Maxim Katz and public figure Ruslan Shaveddinov were also recognized as foreign agents.

*Instagram is owned by Meta, a recognized extremist organization in the Russian Federation.