Russian television was previously banned from reporting that Vladimir Putin was labeled as a “foreign agent”

A Russian TV station previously banned from reporting on the Russian President Vladimir Putin According to the Associated Press, he was labelled a “foreign agent” by the authorities to put pressure on key media before the parliamentary election.

The top independent television channels Dozhd TV and Vazhyne Istorii investigative agencies and their seven reporters are all considered “foreign agents.” This label will attract more government censorship and may lead to audience loss.

Dozhd reports on the poisoning and imprisonment of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, And criminal cases against his allies. The channel criticized the Russian authorities’ suppression of resistance and frequently reported opposition protests.

For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below.

Earlier this year, the Kremlin removed Dozhd from the pool of reporters covering Putin, citing what it said was flawed in its coverage of opposition protests.

Navalny is Putin’s most outspoken political enemy. He fell ill on a domestic flight to Siberia on August 20, 2020, and then flew to Germany for treatment. Officials there determined that he was poisoned by a nerve agent designed by the Soviet Union. die. He blamed the attack on the Kremlin, and the Russian authorities refused to accept the accusation.

Navalny was arrested after returning to Moscow from Germany in January and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in February for violating the probation clause for the 2014 corruption offence. He was dismissed for political motivation.

In the following months, the authorities carried out a total suppression of Navalny’s groups and associates. In June, the court declared the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation and its network of regional offices to be extremist organizations. The sentence punishes people connected with it in long-term imprisonment and is widely seen as part of an effort to prevent Kremlin critics from participating in the September 19 parliamentary elections.

The Ministry of Justice operates under a law that is used to designate non-governmental organizations and individuals that obtain funds from abroad and engage in political activities that are roughly described as “foreign agents.”

The Russian authorities have previously applied this name to a number of independent media, including Meduza and VTimes. VTimes closed after that, and Meduza launched a crowdfunding campaign.

Another law has been used to ban groups deemed “unpopular” and criminalize their membership. It has been used to ban dozens of opposition groups, foreign NGOs and important media.

The Russian authorities increased their attention to the opposition and independent media before the September election, which is widely believed to be important for Putin’s ability to consolidate his rule before Russia’s 2024 presidential election.