Russia’s Justice Ministry has declared Magomed Hajiyev, a former deputy of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, a “foreign agent,” believing the politician fled to the United States after providing classified information about the Kremlin in exchange for a Western passport, Meduza reports.

Hajiyev, who was elected to the State Duma four times in a row from 2004 to 2016, is one of the deputies who voted for the law on “foreign agents” passed by the Russian parliament in 2012.

He actively supported other Kremlin initiatives, such as the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the so-called “Yarova package of laws”, which in 2016 significantly expanded the prerogatives of Russian security forces under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

His last parliamentary term ended in 2021, but after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hajiyev positioned himself as a public supporter of the war and organized the sending of humanitarian aid convoys to the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

Even the leader of the Donetsk separatists, Denys Pusilin, thanked him for “immeasurable support and personal involvement in the fate of Donbas.”

The ex-deputy from “United Russia” promised secrets about the Kremlin

A source close to the Kremlin claims that Hajiev was recently declared a “foreign agent” at the initiative of the political bloc of the Putin administration and the Moscow special services.

Such a decision would have been taken after the appearance in Telegram channels of his compromising conversations about the Russian security forces and even the administration of Vladimir Putin.

In several videos posted on Telegram, the favorite messaging channel of Russians, the former lawmaker talks to a man believed to be a member of Western intelligence services.

“I know a lot, but I don’t want to talk. Once you have your passport, we can discuss many things. First the tickets, then the movie, you can’t see the movie until you have a ticket,” Hajiyev tells him in one of the recordings.

He promises the interlocutor that he will tell “a lot” about the Russian government and oligarchs in exchange for a passport of a European country, noting that he would like France or Italy.

The Russian politician is believed to have arrived in the US, although the circumstances are unknown

In another recording, believed to have been made later, Hajiyev says he is now in the US and claims to have contacts with US intelligence.

He also boasts that he provided classified information to Russian state intelligence, particularly about the country’s armed forces.

In one of the videos, Hajiyev declares that he is ready to renounce his Russian citizenship, and in another he emphasizes that he is “not Russian.” “We fought against Russia for 25 years, we are Dagestanis,” he says.

Hajiyev was born in 1965 in the Republic of Dagestan and was elected to the Russian parliament of that region in the December 2003 elections. Then he ran as an independent candidate and joined the faction in the State Duma of the United Russia party. In the next 3 parliamentary elections, he ran on the lists of Vladimir Putin’s party.

However, Meduza journalists note that they could not independently confirm the authenticity of these records and the reasons why he decided to flee Russia are unclear.

Russia’s Justice Ministry declared him a “foreign agent” on May 26, and he was immediately expelled from Putin’s party. The head of Dagestan, Serhii Melikov, called him a “coward and traitor.”

People’s deputy voted for the law on “foreign agents”

Hajiyev was one of 374 State Duma deputies who voted in favor of the “foreign agents” law, which requires non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding and engage in “political activity” to register as “foreign agents” and periodically report on the funding. received

Since then, in 2017, the scope of the law has been repeatedly expanded to include the media, setting the stage for an increasingly harsh crackdown on civil society in Russia over the past decade.

In December of last year, the legislative act was again amended, which applies not only to persons or organizations that receive funding from abroad, but also to those who “received support and (or) are under foreign influence.”

The law does not contain many details. “Support” from foreign sources means not only financial, but also “organizational-methodical or scientific-technical assistance.”

Follow the latest events of the 462nd day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.