With Russia in the final stretch before the September 18 State Duma elections, the Justice Ministry has tagged the country's only independent sociological-research organization, the Levada Center, as a "foreign agent."
“They want to restrict studies related to the elections and prevent further publications about the falling rating” of the ruling United Russia party, wrote Grigory Melkonyants, co-director of the Golos election-monitoring NGO, which was itself deemed a “foreign agent” in 2015.
