Russia puts ex-Putin speechwriter on foreign agents list

Moscow: Russia added a former speechwriter for President Vladimir Putin to its register of foreign agents, along with one of the country’s most popular singers and a prominent opposition politician who has fled abroad. Russian law requires organizations and individuals who are determined to have received foreign funding to identify themselves as “foreign agents”, potentially undermining their credibility and stifling dissent. The Justice Ministry said Abbas Gallyamov “distributed materials created by foreign agents to an unlimited circle of people, spoke out against the special military operation in Ukraine, (and) participated as an expert and

respondent on information platforms provided by foreign structures”.