Russia's new Foreign Agents Law to take effect tomorrow, what power does the law grant?

On Thursday, legislation will come into effect that will give Russia's government a wider ambit to prosecute those who challenge Vladimir Putin's regime. The new legislation is a result of amendments that were approved by Putin back in July. The amendments were made to the Foreign Agents law, which was introduced back in 2012. 

The new legislation with the amendments will take effect on the 1st of December and as a part of the new amendments, the definition of the term Foreign Agent has been broadened. As per a report from Newsweek, the newly amended law can prosecute those individuals and groups that are "affiliated with foreign agents''. Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the Duma (Russia's parliament) said that the new law was targeted at people who work for foreign nations in exchange for money. 

Russia's Foreign Agents Law

A list will be maintained by Russia's Justice minister and it will include individuals are organisations that are "foreign agents" or have received funding from "foreign agents". Websites of organisations in this list can be blocked without a court order. Organisations and individuals on this list will also not be able to work with children in Russia and receive state funding. They will also be ineligible for teaching positions at universities. Moreover, a decree passed on November 10 will allow the Russian government to publicise the personal details of people on the list. The British Ministry of Defence has said that the law will put people at risk of harassment. 

The British Ministry of Defence also added that the new law will extend the powers of the Russian state. The Foreign Agents Law is a preemptive attempt to "prevent greater domestic dissent as the conflict remains unresolved and increasingly impacts Russians' everyday lives," according to the British Ministry of Defence. It is hard to ascertain how many people in Russia are unhappy with the war and how many support the war. Vladimir Putin is quite popular in Russia, especially in regions other than Moscow and St. Petersburg as Russia has recovered significantly since the fall of the Soviet Union. When the USSR was collapsing, Russians had to rely on moonshine as a form of currency because the USSR's currency had no value. The economic "shock therapy" that was carried out under American supervision led to many people losing their pensions and their sole safety net.