Why Russia Believes Individual Journalists Can Be ‘Foreign Agents’

Russia’s parliament on November 21 passed a bill that allows the government to identify individuals as “foreign agents.” The nomenclature could apply, in particular, to journalists who work with or for media outlets already deemed “foreign agents” or who distribute these outlets’ content online. Andrei Palkin, a regional parliamentarian from the ruling United Russia Party, told Current Time that the move was needed to restrict the activities of an alleged “fifth column.”