Foreign agents should not be deprived of their passive suffrage. Thus, they will be able to be elected to government bodies. This was stated by the head of the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference in the affairs of the Russian Federation from outside Vasily Piskarev. He noted that 192 thousand out of 210 thousand Russian non-profit organizations (NPO) are foreign agents.
“Foreign agents in the passive electoral right are not amazed, they can go to the representative bodies of power. There are no restrictions here,”Piskarev said at a hearing on bills on natural persons-foreign agents in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.
Piskarev stressed that foreign agents would not have access to state secrets.
“In my opinion, this does not raise any question. Because being a foreign agent, gaining access from abroad, working for another state or organization, while having access to our secrets, is clear to everyone,”the deputy added.
He also noted that the bill is aimed only at political activity and has nothing to do with culture, education, health and sports.
Earlier, the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, noted that restrictions in the social sphere, health care, culture and sports should not be imposed on foreign agents conducting political activities.
“Such activities, which are related to culture and science, cannot be classified as political activities. To this list I would add health-related activities. Today, cooperation and joint research in the field of medicine, the development of medicine is hard to imagine without the international community, including those associated with funding,”said Moskalkova.
On December 8, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill on the coordination of the activities of individuals and organizations that have been recognized as foreign agents involved in politics in Russia for finance from abroad. The project was previously supported by the Public Chamber. Its authors were members of the Federation Council commission for the protection of sovereignty and the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference in the affairs of Russia from the outside.
In November, the State Duma and Federation Council commissions for combating foreign interference proposed to expand the use of the "foreign agent" status. According to the amendments they made to parliament, it will be possible to assign it not only to non-profit organizations (NPOs) or the media, but also to other enterprises or ordinary citizens. Then it was noted that natural persons-foreign agents will not be allowed to hold positions in the state and municipal service.
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