MOSCOW (TASS): The law on foreign agents in Russia cannot be repealed, as it allows to resist pressure on Russian journalists and attempts to influence Russian political life from abroad. This opinion was expressed by the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova on Saturday in her publication “The best enemy of the bad” on the Telegraph blog platform . So the diplomat recommended the infographic released on September 8 by the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US Department of State, devoted to a comparative analysis of American and Russian legislation on foreign agents.
“There will be no repeal of the law on foreign agents. For if it is canceled, the Western partners will have a complete sense of impunity both in the pressure on the Russian media abroad and in participation in political life through their agents of influence on the territory of our country,” she said. …
Commenting on the undertaken comparison of the laws of the two countries, the diplomat noted that “the next attempts of the State Department structures to manipulate reality look extremely incompetent.” Zakharova recalled that the “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (FARA) adopted in the United States in 1938 was intended to counter the attempts of Nazi Germany to influence political decisions taken by Washington, but with the end of World War II it was not canceled and was subsequently used “as a tool to combat foreign media, whose agenda contradicts the views of the local establishment. ” “Russia was forced to adopt a similar meaning,
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry drew attention to the fact that the conclusions about the allegedly repressive nature of the Russian regulation of the status of foreign agents do not correspond to reality. According to her, the difference between the laws is, in fact, “that Russia has deliberately avoided the draconian measures used by the Americans.” “Obtaining the status of a foreign agent in the United States can only be compared with the registration of a convicted repeat offender with the police,” she said. Thus, in contrast to the United States, the diplomat points out, in Ru-ssia not any individual or legal entity can be declared a foreign agent. In addition, statements that allegedly anyone who receives funding from a foreign source can be declared a foreign agent are insinuations, Zakharova said.
“In Russia, unlike the homeland of a foreign agency, they are ordered to provide information established by law no more than once a quarter. Media agents, I emphasize, are not in any way affected by their professional rights, if they fulfill the above instructions in good faith, the doors of all departments and the press are open to them. – events, there are no denials of accreditation and answers to their requests, “Zakharova emphasized.
“As for the American reality, the employees of RT and Sputnik can tell a lot of interesting things about summons for interrogations, biased searches at customs, the approaches of special services, examples of psychological pressure from law enforcement agencies towards journalists and their family members,” noted Zakharova.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry also pointed out that the British BBC, German Deutsche Welle and Qatari Al Jazeera do not need registration with the American Ministry of Justice, despite the state funding they receive from the jurisdictions of their permanent residence, while the work of Russian media in the United States “is simply blocked due to FARA law.
