Last Year, 96 Percent of Russians Moscow Called ‘Foreign Agents’ Didn’t Get Any Funding from Abroad

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – In 2025, 206 of the 215 Russians Moscow called “foreign agents” --  a staggering 96 percent -- did not receive any foreign funding, a radical shift from the period before Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine when that was the only basis for classifying people that way and one that means any Russian potentially can be so charged.

            According to an OVD investigation, Russian officials insist that those charged as being foreign agents who in fact did not receive any funding from abroad were nonetheless under “foreign influence” (istories.media/news/2026/06/04/v-2025-godu-96-inoagentov-poluchili-svoi-status-ne-iz-za-zarubezhnogo-finansirovaniya/).

            That change has been conceded by Russian Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko who argued that foreign influence takes many forms and restricting it to financial support as Moscow did before 2022 had put the security of the country at risk and that many who never receive such payments thus deserve to be identified and restricted as “foreign agents.”