Russia has significantly developed its legislation over the past decade to prevent foreign interference in the country's internal affairs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2020) Russia has significantly developed its legislation over the past decade to prevent foreign interference in the country's internal affairs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"Over the past ten years, our legislation has considerably matured and improved, concerning the prevention of foreign countries' interference into our domestic affairs. Necessary gate-houses have just been placed in various spheres to minimize the possibility of such interference," Peskov said in an interview with the RT broadcaster.
According to the spokesman, the recent amendments made to the legislation imposed restrictions on foreign ownership of mass media and special regimes for "foreign agents."
"Some of our advocates of the American democracy... cried that this would lead to the infringement of rights, the whole sectors would stop developing. Nothing of the kind. They are developing, experience difficulties together with the others and together overcome these difficulties. But the opportunities for interference are decreasing," the Kremlin spokesman said.
In November 2017, Russia's parliament passed a law that qualified all organizations disseminating information in Russia under foreign financing as foreign agents. Such organizations are obliged to report the Russian Justice Ministry on their financial activities and present the personal data of their top management.
In late 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that enabled the country to apply the foreign agent status to individuals who received foreign funds and distributed or created materials for foreign mass media. Foreign agents were obliged to register as legal persons so the Justice Ministry could interact with them.
