Russia’s Ministry of Justice has launched an investigation into whether a presidential center dedicated to Boris Yeltsin, the first head of Russia’s post-Soviet state, was a “foreign agent,” RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing Reuters.

A bust of Vladimir Putin next to a bust of former president Boris EltinPhoto: Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP / Profimedia

The Yeltsin Center in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains is dedicated to the study of the life, work and legacy of Yeltsin, who was the president of Russia from 1991 to 1999. In the last years of his life, Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin as his successor and wants him to become the head of Russia.

Among the members of the center’s organizing committee are Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, as well as Anton Vaino and Oleksiy Gromov, two high-ranking Kremlin officials.

On Thursday, Deputy Minister of Justice of Russia Oleg Svyridenko announced the center’s investigation.

“As for the inspection, we have started it. I don’t remember which of the deputies sent us such a request, but we are investigating,” he said on Thursday, answering a question from the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

Russia again refers to the law on “foreign agents”.

Svyridenko did not specify which activities of the center are suspected of falling under the “foreign agents” law, which was widely used to suppress the opposition in Russia even before the start of the “special forces operation” on February 24 of last year.

The scope of the law was expanded after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, and it can now be interpreted as a “foreign agent” any person whom the Russian authorities consider undesirable.

The Russian authorities have declared numerous dissidents in exile, journalists inside the country, and international organizations present in Russia as “foreign agents.” For example, in March of this year, Russia announced that it would not participate in Earth Hour because the organization behind the world-renowned initiative, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), is a “foreign agent.”

On November 25, 2015, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center was opened in Yekaterinburg, which includes a museum, a conference center, educational, children’s and tourist centers, as well as an art gallery. Exhibitions, round tables and other events are regularly held in its buildings.

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