“Foreign agents” and “extremist material” have had their day in the Kremlin

The editorial staff of Štandard contacted a teacher who teaches students aged 11 to 17 in Moscow. We know her identity, but will not disclose it.

According to Sergei Bojarski, chairman of the Russian State Duma's IT committee, a Russian citizen who criticizes the Max app can be placed on the list of foreign agents, especially if they do so in foreign media.

“Last year, all communication between teachers and children and parents was switched to the Sfera app. Previously, we used Google, Zoom, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp... So Sfera was supposed to serve as a secure messenger whose servers are located in Russia rather than in the US or Europe,” the young teacher explains to Štandard.

She adds that she sees no advantage for teachers in the transition to Max. “Teachers don't care whether it's a Russian or American messenger, Bitrix24, the Russian Sfera or the Russian Max – the main thing is that nothing changes and it doesn't make our lives more difficult. I don't see the point in switching from the officially secure Sfera to the dubious Max,” says the educator.

Disappearing books

Since the beginning of September, Russian citizens on the list of foreign agents have been prohibited from participating in “educational and informational activities” in Russia.

Some of the “foreign agents” have emigrated from Russia, but their books continued to be sold until September 1, even though they were labeled as works by foreign agents.

Some of these have been translated into various European languages, including Slovakian and Czech. The Russian news agency TASS reported at the end of August that Russian bookstores are selling off their remaining stocks of books at a discount in order to avoid penalties related to the sale of materials by foreign agents.

On June 25, a law was also passed giving the Ministry of Culture the power to restrict public access in public libraries to books by authors who are designated as foreign agents (Mikhail Zygar, Andrei Zubov), extremists (Meta, Alexei Navalny), or terrorists (Denis Nikitin, Alexei Lovkin).

Štandard spoke to Nikolaj Gerasimov, a historian of philosophy, Doctor of Philosophy, and independent researcher at the Department of Russian Philosophy History at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Although he himself is not classified as a foreign agent as an employee of a state institution, the ever-growing list makes life difficult for him and his colleagues.

When preparing to publish a scientific monograph, he and his colleagues always look for a suitable reviewer. “It turns out that the people we need, the people we were counting on, have been given the status of ‘foreign agents’. That's it then. We can't ask them to review our work,” Gerasimov explains to Štandard.

In addition to banning books that have already been published, the regime also influences which books scientists will or will not be allowed to publish in the foreseeable future, and this also affects the level of professional discussion.
“Many of my colleagues would like to express their opinions and receive feedback from the public. How is that possible under conditions of increasingly strict censorship? It's difficult,” complains the Russian scientist.

However, the lack of feedback is still better than preventing a book from being published. “Sometimes they allow us to research the history and theory of Marxism (including Trotskyism), sometimes they have a problem with it. The situation is similar with anarchism, which has seen a significant increase in interest since 2020, both in academic circles and in society,” explains Gerasimov.

The scientist illustrates the unstable academic situation under the Kremlin regime with the example of a colleague who “had problems” because he wanted to publish a book on the history of monasticism – “the state didn't like something about it.”

“What happens next? I don't know. The whole situation is very unstable. It seems to me that my book Killing the State Within Yourself was published just in time in 2024. In the truest sense of the word ‘just in time’. I don't know if the censors would have allowed it in 2025,” Gerasimov muses.

In conclusion, however, he says that he is not losing hope. “Otherwise, the motivation to do anything at all disappears. Life in Russia is a life of ignorance. Today you are talking to a colleague, and tomorrow you are talking to a ‘foreign agent,’” adds the employee of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Extremist material

On July 22, the State Duma finally passed a law in its third reading that regulates the punishment for searching for extremist material on the internet—it also came into force on September 1.

Anyone searching for any of the numerous materials on the list of extremist materials faces a fine of up to 5,000 rubles (53 euros).

Due to numerous threats from the state, the use of services offering a virtual private network (VPN) has long been widespread, and since September 1, advertising for VPN services has also been subject to a fine.

SIM cards, which are required for registration with WhatsApp, Telegram, or Maxa, for example, are also related to digital security.

Since September 1, passing on a SIM card to a non-relative carries a fine of up to 50,000 rubles (533 euros) or a prison sentence of up to two years.

“Conversations about important things”

With the start of the new school year in 2022, Russian schools introduced “conversations about important things,” which have since been taught during the first lesson on Mondays.

On September 12, 2022, for example, the objectives of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, known as the “special military operation” (SVO), were explained to students in all schools in Russia – as well as in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

To ensure the smooth running of ideological instruction, a politruk was appointed at each school, officially designated as an advisor to the principal for educational work.

This “educational work” aims at the gradual indoctrination of children – but the methodological recommendations for teachers speak a clear and unambiguous language:

“Result of the lesson [September 12, 2022, editor's note]: The students understand the goals of the SVO and that the residents of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic are Russians and therefore their return to Russia is important. Russian soldiers are heroes.”

Starting in September of this year, children aged three to seven will also participate in the “talks about important things.”

Initially, kindergartens in 22 federal subjects were selected, including those in the occupied territories of Ukraine: “Donetsk People's Republic,” “Luhansk People's Republic,” the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya, the Krasnoyarsk region, and Moscow.

These measures by the Kremlin significantly restrict free access to information and reinforce the atmosphere of fear in the country, even among citizens who are not politically or activist-minded. Ultimately, however, they consolidate the regime.