Russia declares two more Abkhaz journalists 'foreign agents'
Russia designates Abkhaz journalists as foreign agents
The Russian Ministry of Justice has added two more Abkhaz journalists to the list of “foreign agents”: Izida Chania, editor of Abkhazia’s oldest publication, Nuzhnaya Gazeta, and Nizfa Arshba, author of the Telegram channel AIASHARA.
Two weeks earlier, Chegemskaya Pravda editor Inal Khashig was also declared a foreign agent.
The Russian Ministry of Justice justified its decision regarding Izida Chania by stating that she “participated in the distribution of messages and materials from foreign agents to an unrestricted audience.”
“As an employee of a foreign publication, she disseminated false information about decisions made by Russian public authorities, their policies, and the electoral system.
She collaborates with an online resource linked to an organization included in the list of foreign and international NGOs whose activities are deemed undesirable in Russia,” the ministry’s statement said.
The case of Nizfa Arshba is even more curious. Unlike most residents of Abkhazia, she does not hold dual Russian-Abkhaz citizenship. She only has an Abkhaz passport, meaning she is NOT a Russian citizen.
That did not stop the Russian Ministry of Justice from designating her as a foreign agent and accusing her of running a “foreign” (Abkhaz) media outlet.
In the ministry’s accompanying document, it is stated that Arshba “disseminated false information about decisions made by Russian public authorities, their policies, and the electoral system.“
Nizfa responded with a brief video comment, saying: “As for being declared a foreign agent—I am not a citizen of the Russian Federation, and I never have been. And Abkhazia is not Russia.”
What angers the newly designated “foreign agents” and Abkhazia’s civil society the most is the complete silence of local authorities. They have refused to comment on the situation, even after Ombudsman Anas Kishmaria urged them to issue an official response to the sanctions against Abkhaz citizens.
According to the Telegram channel Apsny Khabar, it was Abkhazia’s own authorities who initiated these sanctions, using a foreign government to apply pressure on critical journalists.
“How can they be dealt with legally? They can’t. That’s why they were added to another country’s foreign agent registry,” Apsny Khabar claims.
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