Russian court refuses to remove journalist Denis Kamalyagin from ‘foreign agent’ registry

On May 7, the Pskov City Court upheld the Russian Justice Ministry’s decision to add journalist Denis Kamalyagin to the “foreign agent” media registry, the human rights group Agora informed Meduza. 

Kamalyagin, the editor-in-chief of Pskovskaya Gubernia, was designated as an individual “foreign agent” in late 2020. He and his lawyer, Tatyana Martynova, tried to challenge the decision in court, on the grounds that it “interferes with the right to freedom of expression.”

Kamalyagin’s defense plans to appeal the court’s ruling. 

Denis Kamalyagin is one of five journalists and activists who the Russian Justice Ministry has designated as individual “foreign agents.” On May 5, Meduza published interviews with three of these individuals: Kamalyagin, 7x7 correspondent Sergey Markelov, and Radio Svoboda journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya. That same day, the Pskov City Court upheld the Justice Ministry’s decision to designate Savitskaya as a “foreign agent.”