{"id":2782,"date":"2021-05-21T05:22:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T05:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/mr-anti-globalization-meet-alexander-ionov-the-self-described-human-rights-defender-who-demanded-that-russia-label-meduza-a-foreign-agent.html"},"modified":"2021-05-21T05:22:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T05:23:15","slug":"mr-anti-globalization-meet-alexander-ionov-the-self-described-human-rights-defender-who-demanded-that-russia-label-meduza-a-foreign-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/mr-anti-globalization-meet-alexander-ionov-the-self-described-human-rights-defender-who-demanded-that-russia-label-meduza-a-foreign-agent.html","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Anti-Globalization Meet Alexander Ionov, the self-described \u2018human rights defender\u2019 who demanded that Russia label Meduza a \u2018foreign agent\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Alexander Ionov at the conference \u201cA Dialogue of Nations: the Right to Self-Determination and the Construction of a Multipolar World.\u201d Moscow, September 25, 2016.Evgeny Feldman<\/figure>\n

After the Russian Justice Ministry added Meduza to its \u201cforeign agent\u201d list on April 23, we decided to challenge this designation in court. During pre-trial preparations on May 20, human rights lawyers Anastasia Burakova and Sergey Badamshin \u2014 who are representing Meduza\u2019s interests in the case \u2014 gained access to documents that a shed bit of light on why Russia ended up recognizing Meduza as a \u201cforeign agent.\u201d Formally, the initiator of this decision was Alexander Ionov \u2014 the founder of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, who has been a leading character in Meduza investigations on more than one occasion. One of our reports offended Ionov so deeply that he decided to write a complaint about Meduza to Russia\u2019s censorship agency, Roskomnadzor. Meduza shares the fascinating biography of Alexander Ionov, who, as it turns out, actually considers himself a \u201chuman rights defender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurt feelings<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Meduza\u2019s \u201cforeign agent\u201d status came as a surprise for Alexander Ionov \u2014 despite the fact that he was the one who filed the complaint upon which the Russian Justice Ministry based its decision. \u201cWhen the Justice Ministry recognized you as a \u2018foreign agent\u2019 it was news to me all the same,\u201d Ionov told a Meduza. \u201cI thought there would be another response from them, where they\u2019d show us that we missed something somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on internal correspondence submitted to the court (and obtained by Meduza), you can see that officials from four different government branches quickly cooperated to designate Meduza as a \u201cforeign agent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having received a complaint from Alexander Ionov on April 20, Roskomnadzor\u2019s Deputy Head, Vadim Subbotin, sent it to the Justice Ministry\u2019s relevant department the very next day, along with dozens of sheets of information on Meduza. This package included detailed analyses of our web traffic, mobile apps, and social media accounts, as well as our reporting;\u00a0On April 21 and 22, Rosfinmonitoring (Russia\u2019s Federal Financial Monitoring Service) informed the Justice Ministry that \u201cthe organization receives foreign funding, including through indirect means\u201d;On April 22, First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov sent confirmation to the Justice Ministry that \u201cbased on the information received from Rosfinmonitoring and Roskomnadzor, we are coordinating the inclusion of information about the specified legal entity in the relevant registry\u201d;And on April 23, Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko issued an order on including our legal entity, Medusa Project SIA, in the \u201cforeign-agent media\u201d registry.<\/p>\n

Ionov filed his first complaint against Meduza in 2019, after he featured in one of our investigations. Meduza quoted Ionov in an investigative report about Russian military advisers and specialists being sent to protect Russian business interests in Venezuela in the aftermath of an averted coup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a comment to MBX Media on May 20, Ionov claimed that Meduza \u201cattributed all sorts of stories\u201d about a \u201ctroll factory in Venezuela\u201d to him. However, the Venezuela investigation doesn\u2019t mention troll factories once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later, in conversation with Meduza, Ionov corrected himself, specifying that it wasn\u2019t Meduza correspondents who linked him to \u201ctroll factories\u201d \u2014 it was other journalists who based their reporting on Meduza\u2019s Venezuela investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you wrote the article about me and Latin America, it and its English version became the starting point for the publication of articles in Ukraine, Poland, and other countries close to Latvia,\u201d Ionov complained to Meduza. \u201cJournalists immediately expanded [on] your material, just with a message completely different from yours: that I run some kind of \u2018troll factory\u2019 in Latin America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ionov told Meduza that he first complained to the Justice Ministry after the Venezuela article came out (that said, he told MBX Media that he filed the complaint with Roskomnadzor). \u201cI saw certain violations \u2014 I saw how a whole campaign was formed around this article,\u201d Ionov explained. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to please anyone, you see: I don\u2019t get income from the Russian Federation\u2019s budget, I\u2019m not a departmental contractor, I\u2019m not expecting to show what a rah-rah patriot I am \u2014 I just want the law to be respected. And if something is written about me, I can\u2019t sue Polish or Ukrainian journalists \u2014 they won\u2019t even let me into those countries! But there\u2019s an article that pushed this whole story forward \u2014 on the basis of which a number of materials were written, because of which I was forced to suffer. My only job is to prevent distortions of information: otherwise people go on the Internet and read about me and see that I\u2019m some kind of \u2018leader of trolls and killers\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, his complaint against Meduza was ignored, Ionov said: \u201cBack then they [the Justice Ministry] thought our arguments were unconvincing and there wasn\u2019t enough factual information to recognize you as a \u2018foreign agent\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in April 2021, he and his lawyers \u201cdecided to write to the Justice Ministry once again\u201d (though in the end they appealed to Roskomnadzor). \u201cFirst there was a report from the U.S. Justice Department, where they again stated that they would issue arrest warrants for our citizens around the world \u2014 including over the activities of \u2018foreign agents\u2019,\u201d Ionov said, recalling events from April. \u201cAnd we also saw how the activities of Russian media are being restricted in Latvia. What problems can Latvia have with RT?\u201d<\/p>\n

Court documents obtained by Meduza show that Alexander Ionov sent his appeal to Roskomnadzor (not the Russian Justice Ministry) on April 20, 2021. In it, he asks the censorship agency to consider \u201con the basis of legal requirements\u201d the issue of including Meduza in the register of foreign media outlets performing the function of a \u201cforeign agent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document then goes on to explain why, in Ionov\u2019s opinion, this decision would be justified. It claims that Meduza \u201cis engaged in the dissemination of information to an unlimited number of people and receives foreign funding.\u201d Ionov also enclosed copies of documents, such as extracts from the annual report of the Latvian company \u201cMedusa Project,\u201d as well as an excerpt from the Latvian Procurement Supervisory Bureau (from which it follows that in August 2019, Meduza won a tender from the Latvian Investment and Development Agency to advertise Latvian tourism to a Russian-speaking audience).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ionov also makes the \u201cadditional argument\u201d that Meduza\u2019s articles repeatedly cite information from media outlets already recognized as \u201cforeign agents.\u201d He attached multiple pages of statistics on each and every \u201cforeign agent\u201d Meduza has mentioned, throughout the entire period of our newsroom\u2019s existence (regardless of the date when the media outlet in question received its \u201cforeign agent\u201d designation).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, Ionov argued that in his view, Meduza\u2019s editorial policy characterizes it as a \u201cforeign agent.\u201d In particular, he notes that \u201ccriticism of the actions of law enforcement agencies, coverage of the activities of opposition movements, as well as analysis of political trials\u201d are \u201cfrequent topics\u201d of Meduza\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t write shut down Meduza because it\u2019s an opposition media outlet,\u201d Ionov continued. \u201cThe basis for being recognized as a \u2018foreign agent\u2019 is, first and foremost, receiving funding from a foreign government \u2014 including from any ministry or organizations with state involvement. And you had a grant [from the Latvian Investment and Development Agency] for 70,000 euros.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ionov was referring to a contract for advertising Latvian tourism to a Russian-speaking audience, which Meduza won in a tender from a government agency. However, as explained Galina Arapova, the director and head lawyer of the Mass Media Defense Center, Russian legislation allows for assigning \u201cforeign-agent media\u201d status to any information distributor for any type of foreign funding. \u201cA commercial contract with a foreign legal entity for the provision of services, according to which money was transferred, would be considered \u2018foreign financing\u2019,\u201d Arapova said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you write about swindlers in Latvia, for example?\u201d Ionov complained to Meduza. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of swindlers there \u2014 we wrote a long article about this with Latvian Forbes, I can send it to you. But you\u2019re afraid to write about them! And why don\u2019t you talk about the fact that our citizens abroad are recognized as \u2018foreign agents\u2019? And why do the materials about some Russians that you post on your website have such a pro-Western bent?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Anti-Globalization Movement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In March 2012, Alexander Ionov registered a new public organization with the Russian Justice Ministry \u2014 the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (ADR, for short). According to Ionov\u2019s website, the ADR\u2019s task is to support \u201ccountries and peoples opposing the dictates of a unipolar world and seeking to propose an alternative agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the spring of 2013, members of the ADR travelled to Damascus, where they presented Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a certificate of honorary membership to their organization. In an RT interview in 2018, Ionov said that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro were also honorary members of the ADR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Alexander