Russia’s FSB has published a list of 60 topics that could result in journalists and others finding themselves labelled ‘foreign agents’ and prosecuted despite receiving no funding from abroad. The list of information “in the field of the Russian Federation’s military and military-technical activities” does not constitute a state secret, but could, allegedly, be used against Russia’s security. It includes the very widespread practice of hazing or other illegal activities in the army; military corruption and / or procurement; the deployment, numbers and arms of military forces, Russia’s National Guard, FSB and other bodies. Very many of the items (such as “information about the assessment and prognoses for development of the military-political, strategic (operational) situation”) are dangerously broad and imprecise making it easy to use them against any journalist, civic activist or lawyer, simply doing his or her job. Ivan Pavlov, a prominent human rights lawyer, who knows first-hand about political persecution in Russia, warns that this list is a new instrument for persecuting those who, in the subjective view of public officials, are not obtaining information for their own personal use, but for foreign sources.
