Press Release, 5.06.2024

Photo: Andrei Morev (third from left) with his friends and colleagues by the Moscow City Court / Photo from Andrei Morev’s personal archive

On 5 June, the Cheryomushkinsky District Court of Moscow considered the complaint of Andrei Morev, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko and ex-head of the Yakimanka Municipal Council, against the decision of the Cheryomushkinsky Court of Moscow on recognizing MMorev a “foreign agent”. On 14 September, 2023, the district court rejected the politician’s lawsuit challenging the status of a “foreign agent”. The Moscow City Court also turned down Andrei Morev’s lawsuit. This time the court hearing took 12 minutes only.

“Despite the absurdity of the Ministry of Justice’s accusations, despite the lack of foreign funding, the decision of the first instance was left unchanged. I will continue to fight for the abolition of the status of a foreign agent and for the fact that I am a Russian politician working for the benefit of Russians,” Andrei Morev commented on the decision of the Moscow City Court.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Justice recognised Morev a “foreign agent” a year ago – on 30 June, 2023. It follows from the materials of Morev’s “foreign agent” case, that he was included in the register of “foreign agents” for his posts on social media about the Moscow mayoral elections and about the three-day voting. The Ministry of Justice considered the comments that Morev gave to organisations previously recognized as “foreign agents” to be foreign influence. At the same time, the materials of the case contain a reference note running that Yabloko member Andrei Morev does not have foreign funding.

Andrei Morev was removed from the Moscow municipal elections in 2022 due to a fabricated administrative case about “displaying extremist symbols”, and was also fined for “discrediting the army”.

The Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko, who is in the status of a “foreign agent,” is deprived of the opportunity to run in elections at any level and cannot participate in the nomination of other candidates.

Read more about persecution of Yabloko members since the start of the “special military operation”.