On November 19, it became known that the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation added two new organizations to the list of media considered as foreign agents: «Irkutsk Union of Bibliophiles» and «Honest elections». In this article, we will consider the reason for the inclusion of the first organization.
Currently, the list of “foreign agents” consists of 97 items. By the way, 79 of them were added in 2021
It is reported that the «Irkutsk Union of Bibliophiles» is directed by historian Alexey Petrov. At the end of September of this year it was placed in the list of «foreign agents». This happened because of Petrov’s association with the coordinators of the «Vote» movement, which is engaged in observing the conduct of honest elections to ensure the safety of voters
From this it can be concluded that the placement of his [A. Petrov] organization in the same place is «technical in nature», since according to the law «On mass media» (article 25.1) after the entry of a natural person in the register within a month it is necessary to register organizations, in this case «Irkutsk Union of Bibliophiles», as a legal person to increase the information transparency of its activities. However, if registration has not taken place after the end of the month, the organization is classified as a “Foreign Agent”.
“According to the requirements of the legislation, the said legal entity is subject to inclusion in the register, and the messages and materials created by it and distributed on the territory of the Russian Federation are subject to mandatory labeling”, – reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
Back in September, Alexei Petrov noted that the “Irkutsk Union of Bibliophiles” is not the only organization he heads, mentioning that he is the director of the “Alliance” club of young scholars and the executive director of the “Memory Preservation and Heritage Development of the First Governor of Irkutsk Yuri Abramovich Nozhikov” fund. It is possible that these organizations should expect trouble in the near future as well, because their head is a “foreign agent”.
