Legislation on Foreign Agents as an Indicator of the Crisis of the Russian Legal System

The article examines the legislative framework governing the status of foreign agents. The analysis of normative legal acts, law enforcement practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as a number of theoretical and applied studies by other authors and other sources, has allowed us to identify three fundamental problems related to the area of legislation under consideration. The first issue concerns the lack of sufficient justification for the imposition of restrictions on foreign agents by legislation, which is a consequence of the absence of compelling evidence demonstrating that the public benefit of these restrictions outweighs their inherent limitations. The second problem relates to the substantive ambiguity of legislation on foreign agents. This ambiguity gives rise to the risk of any individual, with the exception of those falling within the clearly defined circle set out in the law, being labeled a foreign agent if they are influenced, directly or indirectly, by a foreign source (which may be a Russian national) in any way, and if they engage in any form of active participation in public life. The third problem manifests itself in the excessive burdens and restrictions provided for by the legislation on foreign agents and in many respects contradict the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and global human rights standards. The presence of such obvious and significant problems affecting the very foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation as a democratic state governed by the rule of law indicates a deep crisis encompassing all elements of the domestic legal system.