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RussiaA singer and an opponent classified as “foreign agents”
A popular singer and an opponent who took refuge in France were classified as “foreign agents” by Russian justice on Friday, a new sign of repression against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian pop icon Elizaveta Gyrdymova, aka Monetotchka, performs in front of more than a thousand fans, mostly Ukrainians and Belarusians, during an anti-war concert in Warsaw, Poland, April 21, 2022.
AFP
The names of Elizaveta Gyrdymova (“Monetotchka” by her stage name) and Vladimir Ossetchkin now appear alongside dozens of others on the Justice Ministry’s list of people considered “foreign agents”, found the AFP.
Icon of Russian pop, Monetotchka is accused of having “raised funds to support a hostile country – Ukraine – and of speaking out against the “special military operation”, the name given by Moscow to its armed offensive in Ukraine. Having left Russia after the start of the conflict, Monetotchka notably organized fundraisers abroad for NGOs helping Ukrainian refugees.
Assassination attempt
Vladimir Ossetchkine is the founder of the NGO Gulagu.net, which specializes in defending the rights of detainees in Russia. He is also accused of “having spoken out against the special military operation in Ukraine” and of having been a member of a Ukrainian organization in charge of prisoners of war. Vladimir Ossetchkine received political asylum in France, where he claims to have escaped an assassination attempt on September 12 at his home on the Basque coast.
Vladimir Ossetchkine’s NGO broadcast videos of rape in Russian prisons in 2021, as well as testimonies from victims and, extremely rare, torturers, leading to the opening of an investigation by the authorities. She claims to have more than 1,000 videos showing torture in prison. The opponent claims to have been informed, at the beginning of February, of an assassination plan targeting him and to have since been placed under police protection.
The infamous label of “foreign agent”, reminiscent of the Soviet-era “enemy of the people”, is used by Russian authorities to suppress critical voices. This classification requires painful administrative procedures and identification as such in any publication, including on social networks, under penalty of a fine. The law on “foreign agents” was toughened in 2022, adding new prohibitions.
(AFP)