State Duma to consider tougher punishment for foreign agents

Next week, the State Duma will consider the issue of increasing the liability of foreign agents. This was reported on his Telegram channel by the head of the deputy corps, Vyacheslav Volodin .

"Currently, criminal punishment for failure to perform duties of a foreign agent (Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is imposed only if they commit similar administrative offenses twice within one year (Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ). The bill proposes to cancel this condition, replacing it with a single violation of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation," the State Duma speaker wrote.

He cited statistics from the Ministry of Justice, according to which more than 40 percent of foreign agents do not comply with the procedures and restrictions prescribed to them. In particular, they do not submit reports, do not label their products or do so incorrectly, and produce and distribute prohibited materials.

"According to statistics from the Supreme Court, over the past two years, the number of offenses by foreign agents under Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation has increased by 40.9 percent - from 489 in 2023 to 689 in 2024. At the same time, until 2025, there were no convictions under the criminal article for evading the duties of a foreign agent," Volodin noted, adding that this indicates the need to tighten penalties.

Earlier, a bill was also introduced to the State Duma prohibiting foreign agents from creating legal entities to disseminate information in Russia. The corresponding document was posted in the Duma's electronic database.