Russia’s Duma has unanimously voted to allow the Kremlin to brand undesirable foreign media outlets as “foreign agents”, in retaliation for moves against a Kremlin-funded television station in the US.

The deputy chairman of the Duma, Pyotr Tolstoi, said the chamber, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, was making a stand against so-called anti-Russian hysteria in the west. “We have put up with things that we should not have for too long,” he said.

The Duma passed the amendments to an existing law on foreign agents unanimously on Wednesday afternoon. The updated legislation will pass to the upper house of parliament, usually a formality, before the president, Vladimir Putin, signs it into law.



A second reading had taken place earlier on Wednesday, a sign of the speed with which it was moving through parliament. The Duma is known for pushing through Kremlin-approved legislation with little discussion or dissent, but even by the standards of the Russian parliament, it found willing backers.

“It’s a long time since we’ve been so unanimously agreed,” said the parliamentary speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin.

The Duma vote came after US officials demanded Russia Today, known as RT, register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara), used typically for lobbying groups working for foreign governments, though some media organisations are also registered. The channel said it had been ordered by the US Department of Justice to register as a “foreign agent” by this Monday or have its bank accounts frozen. RT has complied with the demands.

The channel has come under scrutiny in the US in recent months, with intelligence agencies saying it was part of a Russian plot to influence the 2016 presidential elections. The channel positions itself as covering stories in the west that the mainstream media ignores, but it veers on occasions into conspiracy theory or outright falsehoods. Last month, Twitter banned ads from RT following its own investigations and the conclusions of the US intelligence community.

Russian officials have portrayed the move as a freedom of speech issue, and ever since the idea of Fara registration was first floated, there have been promises from Russian officials that “symmetrical action” would follow.

Much about exactly how the Russian law will work remains vague, possibly a deliberate tactic to allow it to be used as and when the Kremlin feels the need to make a point. There is no list of media organisations that are to be targeted, and the amendment does not require all foreign media organisations to register; it merely gives Russian prosecutors a tool with which to pressure particular media organisations.



The Russian MP Leonid Levin said he expected the law would be used immediately against US media organisations, but said it could also be used against those from other countries “if there are unfriendly actions” from those countries. Previously, Radio Liberty, Voice of America and CNN have been mooted as organisations that may be targeted by the new law.

Under the current foreign agents law, Russian NGOs that receive foreign funding must label all their materials and website with the phrase “foreign agent”. How this would work for foreign media representatives is unclear.



Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, has not ruled out the expulsion of US media outlets or correspondents, and has promised the ministry will prepare a “surprise” for the west when drawing up its retaliatory measures.



“We have received so many appeals from our citizens demanding that we do something about American media outlets,” Zakharova told state television last week.

Rights groups said the legislation could be used as another tool to shut down dissenting voices in Russia.



“This legislation strikes a serious blow to what was already a fairly desperate situation for press freedom in Russia,” said Denis Krivosheev, the deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International.



“Independent media outlets and journalists face reprisals and risk attacks on an almost daily basis. Many have been forced out of the mainstream Russian media space. This latest legislation takes obstacles for media working in Russia to a new level.



