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Feds Target AI Critics as "Foreign Agents"

396 points · 457 comments · nmeagent

  1. pavlov · · focus · HN ↗
    Straight out of the Putin playbook.

    For the past 25 years, ever-increasing numbers of Russian civil society have been labeled foreign agents. They are then ostracized and harassed by officials.

    One prominent example is Memorial, a human rights organization founded at the end of the Soviet Union, which received the Nobel Peace Prize: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Memorial_(society)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Memorial_(society)

    “After the Russian foreign agent law was passed in July 2012, Memorial came under increasing government pressure. On 21 July 2014, the Memorial Human Rights Centre was declared a ‘foreign agent’ by the Ministry of Justice. The label was extended in November 2015 to the Research &amp; Information Centre at St. Petersburg Memorial, and on 4 October 2016 to Memorial International itself. On 28 December 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia ordered Memorial International to close for violations of the foreign agent law.”

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