Putin Regime has Transformed ‘Foreign Agents’ into Full-Blown ‘Enemies of the People, Record Shows

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 14 – One of the secrets of Vladimir Putin’s success in moving toward the restoration of totalitarianism in Russia is the anecdote about the frog who jumps out of already hot water but will stay in water that gradually warms until it kills him. As Andrey Malgin shows, that is what it has done by transforming “foreign agents” into “enemies of the people.”

    The Russian writer who has lived abroad for the last 16 years notes that when Putin pushed through the law creating the category of “foreign agent” in 2012, the Kremlin leader told everyone that it was no more than the Russian version of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) (moscowtimes.ru/2025/04/14/kak-inostrannie-agenti-prevratilis-vo-vragov-naroda-a160905).

    That law was ostensibly directed only at NGOs receiving funds from abroad rather than at individuals, but six years later, it was extended to individuals, including those who did not receive funding from abroad but only were under some undefined influence from abroad, Malgin continues.  

    The number of organizations and individuals so classified by the Russian authorities remained relatively small. There were only 115 listed at the time of the launching of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine in February 2022. But since then, the numbers have skyrocketed and the consequences of being classified a foreign agent have worsened.

    Individuals declared to be foreign agents were then prohibited from occupying positions in the government, from teaching, from participating in election campaigns and from organizing any public activities. Those who violated these bans were fined; and those fined twice in one year were subject to being sent to prison or the camps.

    In recent months, the situation has gotten worse: those who don’t turn themselves in for registration are fined as well, and the meaning of being under foreign influence has been expanded to the point that almost anyone can be found to be in that position. And new laws have extended its reach as well to those not under such influence but cooperate with those who are.

    In addition, Malgrin says, the authorities have taken steps to deprive those who are so classified of the ability to make a living either by publishing or by appearing in public. And now, some in the Duma want to confiscate the property of such people, effectively reducing them to a status no different from the enemies of the people in Soviet times.