The Pskov City Court refused to suspend editor-in-chief of Pskovskaya Guberniya Denis Kamalyagin* from the status of a foreign agent media. The journalist is trying to challenge the Ministry of Justice’s decision to include him in this register and asked to cancel the status for the duration of the trial. The same judge sustained a similar claim for Lyudmila Savitskaya, a journalist of Sever.Realii. Kamalyagin* told 7x7 about this.
The journalist learned about the judgement from his lawyer Tatyana Martynova. It is three pages long; as Kamalyagin* said, he could understand only a few sentences from it. The judgement states that judge Tatyana Semyonova “has not substantiated any facts indicating that there is a clear danger of violating rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests” and also has not found “any impossibility or difficulty of protecting rights without the provisional measures of protection.”
“I cracked up when I learned about the judgement. Lyuda [Savitskaya] and I have the same lawsuits, the same judge, but the judgements are different,” Kamalyagin* commented on the decision to 7x7. “Perhaps, when the courts suspended Savitskaya and [Sergei] Markelov [7x7’s correspondent from Karelia] from the status of foreign agents and everyone began to discuss this as a victory over the Ministry of Justice, an instruction came from above to make the score at least 2:1, rather than whitewash.”
He added that he would appeal the judgement.
On December 28, 2020, the Ministry of Justice of Russia included the first five individuals in the register of foreign agent media. In addition to Markelov and Savitskaya, editor-in-chief of Pskovskaya Guberniya Denis Kamalyagin*, performance artist Daria Apakhonchich* from Saint-Petersburg, and human rights advocate Lev Ponomaryov* were included there.
Fulfilling the Ministry of Justice's requirement, Kamalyagin*, Markelov and Apakhonchich* have established a company — the Sort of Foreign Agent LLC. Savitskaya has applied for the registration of the Foreign Agent Journalist ANO.
