‘We don’t have any money’: Russian news outlet asks readers to help pay a 200,000-ruble fine for omitting a musician’s ‘foreign agent’ label
The news outlet Takie Dela has been fined 200,000 rubles for publishing a quote from musician Boris Grebenshchikov without mentioning that Russia has designated him a “foreign agent,” the outlet reported.
“Our lawyer said the hearing lasted a minute. The judge wouldn’t listen to the defense’s arguments,” Takie Dela said.
The case stemmed from a quote Takie Dela published on its VKontakte page: “Russia has a remarkable ability to cast out people who are ready for the wider world.” Grebenshchikov said this in a May 2026 interview with RTVI.
Takie Dela’s editors said they cannot include a “foreign agent” disclaimer for everyone with the designation in their social media posts and asked for help paying the fine.
“Maybe 200,000 rubles seems like a small amount. But we don’t have it. We’ve just launched an SOS campaign to raise at least 900,000 rubles in recurring donations. Because our budget is a million rubles short, and starting in January or February, we won’t have any money to pay salaries,” the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Yevgenia Volunkova, wrote.
Takie Dela covers social problems in Russia. Its editors continue to work inside the country despite the challenges. In 2024, T-Bank’s payment service stopped processing donations to Takie Dela, and in 2026, the outlet’s website was blocked.
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