Singer Monetochka among new additions to the list of ‘foreign agents’

The Russian Ministry of Justice updated its list of “foreign agents,” which now includes the singer Monetochka (Elizaveta Gyrdymova) and Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the anti-corruption and anti-torture project Gulagu.net.

The Justice Ministry claims that Monetochka received “support from foreign sources,” spoke out against the war, and raised funds “to support an unfriendly country — Ukraine.” Osechkin, the Ministry says, helped Ukraine develop protocols for treatment of prisoners of war.

Other new additions to the list include bloggers Vadim Kharchenko and Anton Ustimov; activist Ibragim Yaganov; Darya Besedina, a Moscow City Duma deputy from the liberal party Yabloko; and the group T9 NSK, which organizes transgender people and their families.

In addition to anti-war positions, Besedina and T9 NSK distributed “LGBT propaganda,” the Ministry reports, while Ustimov and Yaganov allegedly “called for the violation of Russian laws and struggle against the current government,” and Kharchenko “distributed negative information about the Russian Defense Ministry.”