Russia’s Ministry of Justice has declared well-known environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak to be a foreign agent, Slivyak revealed in a press statement released by Germany’s Urgewald environmental organization on Tuesday.
“My classification as ‘foreign agent’ demonstrates once more the great fear of civil society felt by the Russian regime,” Slivyak said. The ministry announced its decision on Friday, justifying the move on the basis of Slivyak’s criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.
Slivyak came to prominence by campaigning against the transport of nuclear waste. The Ecodefense organization he founded was one of the first to be listed as a “foreign agent” in 2014.
In 2021, he received the Right Livelihood Award, seen by many as an alternative Nobel Prize. Slivyak left Russia for Germany soon after the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
The Russian authorities set up the foreign agent register in 2012, initially listing only organizations but from 2020 individuals as well. There are now almost 1,000 names on the Justice Ministry’s blacklist, which is seen as a way to silence activists.
Whereas foreign agents were originally seen as receiving foreign funding, merely being “under foreign influence” is now sufficient to be blacklisted.
Those on the list are subject to restrictions, such as being barred from public employment in Russia and from generating income through public relations campaigns.
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