The pro-Kremlin political scientist, Serghei Markov, was fined 35,000 rubles for not self-declaring as a “foreign agent”. The activist was sanctioned after giving an interview to the Washington Post.
The Gagarinsky Court in Moscow found him guilty of violating regulations concerning the activity of “foreign agents”. Markov attended the trial wearing a T-shirt with Putin and the inscription “For Russia!”
Lawyer Alexei Molohov argued that Markov’s offense violates the Constitution of Russia and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to SOTAvision. The lawyer asked the Constitutional Court of Russia to review the provisions of the Administrative Offenses Code, related to the activities of a foreign agent.
“The regulation is absurd from a common sense perspective. The man gives an interview to the Washington Post. But Peskov does it too. It’s discriminatory,” the defense stated.
The lawyers requested that representatives of the Ministry of Justice be summoned to court, to explain the reasons why law enforcement agencies identified foreign influence in Markov’s publications. The judges rejected both motions.
Markov mentioned that he “could never have imagined that he would turn out to be a foreign agent while debating with Putin’s opponents and defending Putin’s position”. The political scientist self-titled as “a fighter on the informational front” and highlighted his participation in discussions with opposition figures Ilya Ponomarev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, where he “debated, rather than joined their opinions.”
Markov also considers himself a “loyal son of the Russian state”, comparing his love for the country to the “love of a son who humbly accepts a slap from his father.”