This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. Andrei Zakharov works on projects for the Russian-language BBC's Russian-language service, and had been based in Moscow. After being labeled a foreign agent by Russian authorities in October, Zakharov called his exit a form of exile. The designation also included the investigative network Bellingcat and various journalists that were perceived to have foreign backing.
Bellingcat was part of the effort to name Russian agents who were accused of carrying out the fatal Salisbury poisoning attacks in England in 2018, where the nerve agent Novichok was used against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. A police officer, DS Nick Bailey, was also poisoned, and the attack resulted in the death of the Wiltshire woman, Dawn Burgess. The BBC said that it strongly rejects the decision by the Russian authorities to designate Andrei Zakharov from our Moscow bureau as a 'foreign agent', and that he was nominated by him with indignation. They added: Our priority is to support Andrei and to make sure that he and his colleagues are able to continue reporting the country at such an important time. He said that he had become aware of the unprecedented surveillance on him as he lived and worked in Moscow. In the report he described as closely monitoring him, he did not specify who he believed to be closely monitoring him, nor the cause of increased scrutiny. He said it is not yet clear what the surveillance was connected with: the fact that I was recognized as a foreign agent, or perhaps the work I did about hackers from the Evil Corp group, which I worked on with my British colleagues. The Russian leader Vladimir Putin's personal life has been investigated by Mr. Zakharov. READ MORE: Kickboxing champ dies after trying to treat 'little virus' at home.
The BBC said it would not make any comment on Mr Zakharov's situation. Zakharov described leaving the country as a sad but precise word exile, calling himself on Twitter: foreign agent Number 77; an exile Those who are labelled as foreign agents for the media must provide exhaustive information on their activities and financial situation twice a year. The Russian political elite considers the use of the term as a means of cracking down on information sources that are considered hostile to journalists and media operating in the Russian Federation. Science taking great steps in male cancer detection EXPRESS COMMENT COMMENT Covid LIVE: Light at the end of the tunnel for Omicron LIVE POLL: Will you buy a heat pump because they are more cost-effective? VOTE: Brexit Live: Massive boost as Britain gets tough on fishing Over one hundred journalists, activists and organisations are on a list of foreign agents held by the Russian Justice Ministry, according to the Moscow Times. They added that Mr Putin said earlier this month that Russia's laws on foreign agents were less stringent than those upheld by the West. Human rights groups have criticized Russia's rules on foreign agents as repressive and designed to enforce conformity. Earlier in 2021, BBC journalist Sarah Rainsford, a veteran Moscow correspondent, was forced to leave Russia because her visa was not extended past the end of August.
She said at the time that I am being expelled - it is not a failure to renew my visa, although technically that is what it is. I'm being expelled and I've been told that I can't come back. It's devastating personally, but it's also shocking. Russia is not just any old place, it's not just any old place. It is a country I've devoted a lot of my life to trying to understand, because there were clear signs for Russian media: there have been really serious problems for Russian independent journalists recently, but we've been shielded from all of that until now, according to the foreign press. I think this is a clear sign that things have changed. It's a bad sign about the state of affairs in Russia and another downward turn in the relationship between Russia and the world - a sign that Russia is closing in on itself.