Russia Declares Rights Lawyer Ivan Pavlov Who Defended Kremlin Critic Alexei Navalny’s Group “Foreign Agent”

On his social media channel, Ivan Pavlov greeted it as a badge of honour. (File)

Moscow:

A prime Russian human rights lawyer who defended the Anti-Corruption Basis of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny was added to the Justice Ministry’s checklist of “overseas brokers” on Monday.

Ivan Pavlov and 4 different legal professionals had been positioned on the checklist, now comprising 93 names, of rights activists, journalists, media shops and others who the ministry says are receiving overseas funding to hold out political exercise.

These listed are subjected to stringent monetary reporting necessities and obliged to preface something they publish with a disclaimer stating they’re overseas brokers, a time period with destructive connotations suggestive of spying.

On his social media channel, Pavlov greeted it as a badge of honour.

“To grow to be a ‘overseas agent’ in the present day is sort of like receiving a state prize for particular providers within the space of freedom of speech and data,” he mentioned. “The lengthy checklist of honorees contains so many good journalists and rights defenders that it will even be sort of hurtful to not be one in every of them.”

Pavlov got here beneath felony investigation in April after he was accused of exposing labeled info in his defence of former journalist Ivan Safronov, who’s being held on treason costs that he denies.

Earlier this 12 months, Pavlov led the defence of Navalny’s political community at a sequence of hearings that had been closed to the general public, which resulted within the teams being banned as “extremist”.

Navalny himself is in jail for parole violations over an embezzlement case he says was trumped up. He was arrested in Moscow this 12 months after flying again from Germany the place he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Russia.

The Kremlin rejects the concept media are being persecuted and says the “overseas agent” laws is required to guard Russia from overseas meddling.

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