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Russiaâ€™s State Duma passes amendments to foreign agent media law

15 November 2017 09:34 (UTC +04:00)

Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) voted at its meeting on Wednesday for passing the amendments that would allow to designate media outlets as foreign agents, if they are funded from abroad, APA reported citing TASS.

After acquiring this status, these media outlets will be subject to the restrictions and responsibilities, which are currently envisaged for non-governmental organizations designated as foreign agents. They will also be facing a similar responsibility for such NGOs for breach of legislation.

A total of 409 lawmakers out of 450 voted for the amendments, no one voted against them or abstained. The amendment was introduced in the second reading of the bill, which initially dealt with a related issue, specifically, the possibility of the pre-judicial blocking of websites of the organizations outlawed in Russia. This move became a response to the demand by the US Department of Justice that the US branch of Russia’s RT television channel, RT America, should register as a foreign agent by November 13.