ABSTRACT
In this section, we examine how Russian legislation addresses unwanted foreign influence by restricting the activities of persons (organisations and individuals) who engage in political activities while receiving aid from foreign or international sources. From dispersing ideas that initially concerned labelling organisations as foreign agents, which later expanded to limiting the activities of private individuals, we will see how a new direction of asymmetrising information through building a wall between individuals and information from abroad has been created.
In the example of legislation enacted in 2012 that included two articles on the activities of organisations in federal laws, it is interesting to see how these ideas grew from a few small prohibitions to somewhat approaching complete censorship, which evolved into a separate consolidated federal law on foreign agents by 2022. Before 2022, authorities and courts created new rules on acknowledging an unwanted person as a foreign agent without defined legal criteria. In this sense, we are particularly curious about self-correction techniques for asymmetrical information, just as the justifications for the new consolidated law serve as an example of asymmetrical communication of the necessity of a law that protects Russian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
