Press Release, 6.08.2024

Photo: Vitaly Isakov and Boris Vishnevsky at a meeting of the Vasileostrovsky District Court of St. Petersburg / Photo by the regional branch of the party

Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko and deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, is challenging the status of “foreign agent” unlawfully assigned to him by the Ministry of Justice. The hearings take place in the Vasileostrovsky District Court of St.Peterburg. At the last meeting, the politician submitted a petition for the district court to appeal with a request to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the constitutionality of a number of provisions of the Federal Law “On Control over the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence”.

The draft petition, prepared by Vishnevsky’s lawyers Vitaly Isakov and Alexander Kobrinsky, runs that these provisions allow any citizen to be unlawfully restricted in their constitutional rights (including electoral rights), if only a Ministry of Justice official decides, at his own discretion, that certain circumstances of a citizen’s activities (including interviews with foreign media) should be considered “foreign aid” or “support”.

At the same time, Federal Law No. 255 does not contain any definitions of the terms “influence”, “assistance”, “support”, or criteria on the basis of which the presence of “influence” is established, and the loss of a citizen’s constitutional rights occurs immediately after inclusion in the register of foreign agents in an extrajudicial manner.

Boris Vishnevsky noted that he supplemented the statement of claim and proposed a petition to the Constitutional Court because the decision of the Ministry of Justice impedes many forms of his parliamentary activity, and the obligation to label as a “foriegn agent” all materials, including responses to voters, undermines trust in him – given how negatively the words “foreign agent” are historically perceived in society.

“The question of the constitutionality of Law No. 255 is very important. Previous decisions of the Constitutional Court, adopted under earlier versions of the law on “foreign agents”, established that this status does not mean “a negative attitude of the state” towards “foreign agents”, does not prevent them from working and does not mean discrimination.

But what, is depriving me of my voting rights, and infringing on my rights compared to other deputies, and depriving me of the right to campaign in elections and support Yabloko candidates, and depriving me of the right to teach, if not discrimination? I am sure that it is necessary for the Constitutional Court to resolve the issue of the constitutionality of the provisions of the law on “foreign influence”, which, in my opinion, simply trample on a number of provisions of the Constitution,” Boris Vishnevsky commented.

In addition, Vishnevsky’s representative, lawyer Vitaly Isakov, presented additions to the statement of claim, formulated after the answers of the representatives of the Ministry of Justice to the questions of Vishnevsky and his representatives at the previous court hearing.

It follows from these answers that when Vishnevsky was included in the register of “foreign agents”, the provisions of federal and city legislation (including the Charter of St. Petersburg), containing guarantees of his parliamentary activities as a representative of citizens, were not taken into account in any way.

At the same time, inclusion in the register significantly limits Vishnevsky in his activities – he cannot be a member of joint councils and commissions with the administration (and cannot even be present at them), cannot organise meetings with voters and report to them, cannot not only be elected himself, but even support candidates for deputy from the party he represents, and so on.

Representatives of the Ministry of Justice asked to postpone the court hearing to study these additions, which was done. The hearing of the Vasileostrovsky District Court, where the deputy of the Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party Boris Vishnevsky is challenging his inclusion in the register of “foreign agents”, will continue on 27 August.