Putin found it “comical” for “foreign agents” to label personal photographs

Vladimir Putin said that the situation in which a person recognized as a “foreign agent” is forced to put a corresponding mark when publishing personal photographs is “comical.” Pavel Gusev, editor-in-chief of Moskovsky Komsomolets, told him about the problem during a meeting with members of the HRC.

“The law was adopted in a hurry, it was not discussed either with the journalistic community, or with the specialized committee of the State Duma, or with the Union of Journalists,” Gusev said. – Without any warning, it is issued: you are a foreign agent. Nobody explains anything. This is done by the Ministry of Justice, not by Roskomnadzor, which works with the media and knows our specifics. Maybe it makes sense that there was a court session and the court would make an appropriate decision? It got to the point that foreign agents are being labeled in social networks. Ridiculous: a journalist recognized as a foreign agent decorates a Christmas tree with a child, and writes in social networks that a foreign agent is decorating a Christmas tree? .. Well, why should there be some limits? “

Calling the described situation comical, Putin also suggested discussing the law with the professional community: “Of course … what you said should be taken into account, including how the document was created, namely, that it was not discussed with the professional community. It is necessary not only to pay attention to this, but this work must be carried out, to see how it functions, to what it leads. “

At the same time, the professional community has already discussed the law: in August, more than 150 Russian media outlets and NGOs did appeals to the authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, demanding that this document be canceled. More than ten publications also sent their letters to the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin, ministers of justice and internal affairs, as well as the head of the Russian Guard and speakers of both chambers of parliament.