Press Release, 13.09.2023

Photo: Andrei Morev / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 14 September, the Cheryomushkinsky District Court of Moscow will hold the first hearing on the claim of the Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko, Andrei Morev, against the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Morev demands to cancel the decision of the Ministry of Justice to include him in the register of “foreign agents”.

From the materials of Morev’s “foreign agent” case, it follows that he was included in the register for his posts on social media about the elections of the Mayor of Moscow and about the three-day vote. The Ministry of Justice considered the commentaries that Morev gave to the online media previously recognised as “foreign agents” to be foreign influence. At the same time, the case materials contain a certificate stating that Yabloko does not have foreign funding.

“The Ministry of Justice considers an absolutely legal political activity in our country to be a foreign agent’s activity,” the Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko notes.

The hearing will be held in the Cheryomushkinsky District Court at the address: Moscow, Krzhizhanovsky 20/30, building 3, room 520. The hearing starts at 11:20 a.m.

It should be noted that on 8 September, the Pskov City Court rejected Lev Shlosberg’s claims against the Ministry of Justice. Shlosberg, a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, also sought to declare illegal the order of the Ministry of Justice to include him in the register of “foreign agents.” This decision will be appealed to the Pskov Regional Court.

In addition to Lev Shlosberg and Andrei Morev, the Ministry of Justice recognised two more members of Yabloko as “foreign agents” – Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and human rights defender, and Dmitry Muratov, journalist and a Nobel Prize winner.