Natalia Sindeeva, the CEO of Dojd, one of Russia’s few independent media outlets, who has been living in exile for several months, was declared an “agent of foreigners” on Friday, along with two other journalists from the group. an illustration of the government’s pressure on civil society, reports AFP.

The names of Natalia Sindeeva, Volodymyr Romensky and Kateryna Kotrikadze appear in the updated list of persons classified as “foreign agents” published by the Ministry of Justice of Russia.

Their inclusion in the list is officially justified by the “performance of political activity”.

Kremlin critic Doyd (“Dozhd” in Russian) was blocked in early March after the Russian offensive on Ukraine, which was widely condemned by his journalists.

Since then, Doyd has lived in exile in Latvia, a country neighboring Russia that has accepted several free Russian media outlets and resumed broadcasting from Riga, the Baltic state’s capital, in mid-July.

According to the list released by the Ministry of Justice of Russia on Friday, lawyers Mykhailo Benyach and YouTuber Ivan Yakovyna were also declared “agents of foreigners”.

Since the beginning of the offensive against Ukraine, Russia has experienced unprecedented repression. The authorities have introduced a law that provides a penalty of up to 15 years in prison for any publication of information about the military that the authorities deem false.

In recent months, the Russian opposition has shrunk, and most of its members are now in exile or in prison.

Journalist and blogger Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former political mentor, announced on Wednesday that she had taken refuge in Lithuania after being the target of a blackmail lawsuit that she described as a “raiding of (her) editorial office.” . .

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