The Ministry of Justice has declared the "Watch in Volgograd" project a foreign agent.

The anti-corruption project "Watch in Volgograd"*, created by activist Evgeny Kochegin, has been added to the register of foreign agents. Project representatives stated that the Ministry of Justice had classified random people and even deceased people as their participants.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," Volgograd activist Evgeny Kochegin*, who currently resides abroad, was added to the register of foreign agents by a decision of the Ministry of Justice in September 2023. The ministry explained its decision by saying that the activist had engaged in activities aimed at shaping a negative image of Russia and had disseminated materials of foreign agents. In the spring of 2024, Kochegin* received a fine for failing to label posts on his personal Telegram channel as a foreign agent.

The Russian Ministry of Justice today updated its register of foreign agents, adding the "Dozor in Volgograd" project to it. According to the ministry, he participated in distributing materials from other foreign agents and undesirable organizations.

"He disseminated false information about decisions made by public authorities of the Russian Federation and their policies, and opposed the special military operation in Ukraine," according to a publication on the Ministry of Justice website.

The ministry noted that "the creator and authors of the project" live outside of Russia.

The "Dozor in Volgograd" Telegram channel*, which has about 5,000 subscribers, informed readers about the Ministry of Justice's decision. A little later, the project's representatives reported that they had "reviewed the list of individuals participating" in their "foreign agent organization," according to the Ministry of Justice.

"It raises many questions. In addition to the actual founders of the Watch, there were random individuals included, and even a person who died more than a year ago." This proves that no high-quality work is being done to investigate organizations before designating them as foreign agents,” the project’s publication states.

The "Caucasian Knot" also reported that in September 2022, security forces conducted searches of friends and acquaintances of Yevgeny Kochegin*. In January 2024, they also conducted searches in connection with his case at the home of "Caucasian Knot" journalist Vyacheslav Yashchenko - the search was conducted without a court order, as security forces considered Yashchenko "a person with information about the whereabouts of Kochegin*."

* are included in the register of foreign agents.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.