Valeria Vetoshkina, a lawyer for the human rights organization Perviy Otdel, was recognized as a foreign agent for expert comments to foreign media agents and money transfers to Memorial Human Rights Center.
This is reported by the “First Department”.
In a comment to Znak.com, Vetoshkina stated that she only found out about the reasons for entering her into the register of foreign agents when she decided to challenge her status in court. “Actually, I learned about the grounds for adding me to the register from the objections of the Ministry of Justice filed with the court, the legislation does not provide for the obligation to explain to people without a trial why they are being entered from the register,” the lawyer explained.
Vetoshkina was explained that she had been given the status of a foreign agent for giving comments to Present Time, Voice of America, Sever.Realiyam, Krym.Realiyam, Meduza and Radio Liberty.
Other grounds were two money transfers from HRC Memorial*: 16,000 rubles for cooperation with the human rights project OVD-Info and 5,500 rubles as a refund for tickets to a human rights seminar.
“As expected, I did not see anything other than my usual professional activities in the objections of the Ministry of Justice. I will be happy to take part in the “creation and distribution of material” created by other media, even if they are illegally included in this discriminatory register, ”Vetoshkina said.
She also noted that she does not consider it lawful to include herself in the register. “It is strange for me to think about the possible legitimacy of my introduction, if the law itself is disgusting and discriminatory. It should not be,” said the human rights activist.
Valeria Vetoshkina is a lawyer and former employee of Team 29, a human rights organization deemed undesirable in Russia, and now an employee of the First Department organization. Vetoshkina is leading the case of the former photographer of Navalny’s headquarters in Moscow, Alexander Strukov, who is accused of inciting terrorist activities for comments under posts on Znak.com social networks.
