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Russia has launched a criminal case against The Insider’s investigative journalist Sergei Ezhov for his alleged “failure to comply with obligations as a foreign agent.” Law enforcement searched his parents' apartment in Ryazan on Monday morning, Ezhov told The Insider.
According to Ezhov, his parents were not home at the time, and security forces broke down the door to gain access to the property. The journalist is currently outside Russia.
“Well, I’ll just work even harder and better. I am confident in my cause and the importance of what I do,” he wrote on X (Twitter) after learning of the search.
The Russian Ministry of Justice designated Sergei Ezhov as a “foreign agent” on July 5, 2024. In response, the journalist released a message to his readers, promising to publish an alternative list — the “registry of malicious actors” — every Friday, naming individuals featured in his investigations, as well as their associates.
The latest entries, made on March 14, 2025, include Austria’s former Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl and ex-Stasi officer Matthias Warnig — both associates and allies of Vladimir Putin.
English translations of Sergei Ezhov’s investigations can be found on The Insider’s website via the following link.
Russia’s law on “foreign agents,” first enacted in 2012 to target NGOs and repeatedly expanded to include media organizations and individuals, requires those the government deems to be “under foreign influence,” along with those that simply receive external funding, to label their content with a 24-word disclaimer saying it was produced by a “foreign agent.” It has been widely used to target journalists, activists, NGOs, and independent media, effectively stifling dissent and press freedom in Russia.
Under the law, anyone receiving funds from abroad can be labeled a “foreign agent” — even if they do not act under foreign direction. Nearly all reputable human rights organizations and many independent media outlets in Russia have been compelled to register as “foreign agents” under the law. The law’s expansion has meant that every single public message — down to each social media post — must be marked.
On July 23, 2021, Russia’s Ministry of Justice declared The Insider a “foreign agent.” At the time, The Insider was the 29th media outlet added to the list.
Several months later, in December 2021, the law was used to shut down two of Russia’s leading human rights groups: International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center. The lawsuits focused on allegations that Memorial had repeatedly failed to comply with the “foreign agents” law. Memorial was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Ales Bialiatski from Belarus and the Center for Civil Liberties from Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch has called the Russian law “a crucial part of the web of repressive legislation adopted in recent years to stifle civil society.”