Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko proposed to recognize foreign agents for violation of spiritual values. He expressed this opinion at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum. Chuichenko explained his position by the fact that the spiritual and moral values of Russia are an element of state policy.
Leading expert of the Center for Political Analysis Mikhail Zakharov comments:
“Apparently, Konstantin Chuichenko proceeds from the intention that spiritual values, which are adopted in a number of legislative acts and other resolutions of the Russian state, are in themselves a direction of state policy. And, accordingly, only people who in one way or another are somehow morally inspired or even financially motivated by forces unfriendly to Russia, which, of course, are all abroad, can harm them. Thus, this type of activity falls under the concept of “foreign agent”. It is important here how law enforcement will be arranged, because, in fact, in the current version of the law on foreign agents, it already allows you to appoint almost anyone as a foreign agent, because now you don’t even need foreign funding. Here the question will be whether the law will be targeted or mass application.
Earlier, at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, the updating of the law on foreign agents, namely the appearance of a category of third parties in it, was already discussed. The forum also raised the issue of establishing criminal liability for Russophobia and a discussion on the abolition of the ban on ideology in the country’s constitution.