June 01, 2024

The Path to Foreign Agenthood


The Path to Foreign Agenthood
Members of The Path Home during a protest on Victory Day. Put’ Domoi / Telegram

On Friday, Russia's Justice Ministry added "The Path Home" (Путь Домой), a grassroots organization of family and community members who defend the rights of those who have been mobilized to fight in Russia's War on Ukraine, to its Orwellian "Foreign Agents" list.

The Path Home was a subject of a feature article in the Spring 2024 issue of Russian Life, which was translated and reprinted from Cherta (also a "foreign agent").

The Justice Ministry said that Путь Домой had worked to create a "negative image" of Russia and the Russian army and that it had called for illegal protests. Meanwhile, the Ministry also labeled one of the movement's leaders, Maria Andreyeva, as a "foreign agent."

"I do not agree with this," Andreyeva told AFP of the label, adding: "I will protest this."

The Moscow Times wrote that Russian authorities had previously appeared unwilling to target the movement in an apparent bid not to anger relatives and wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

The organization had earlier this year staged rare protests in central Moscow.

On its popular Telegram channel, Путь Домой wrote:

After so many months of awkward threats and shit-slinging in the media, the authorities have finally made up their minds about us. Now we, too, are agents of the reptilians and enemies of the regime. I wonder if there will be any evidence? Of course not. And Put Domoi has never been financed by anyone. The insanity and fear are growing stronger.

What's next? Will mobilized and contract soldiers who complain about the lack of payments and uniforms become foreign agents? Foreign agents with weapons in their hands? Or maybe everyone except United Russia members are foreign agents?

The absurdity is gaining momentum. But we do not intend to stop. Our relatives are still in mortal danger, under the rule of "patriots" of Russia and friends of the state.

Well, now we have entered the list of cultural representatives: actors, musicians, writers. Are we being congratulated or something?

You Might Also Like

The Foreign Agents List
  • June 01, 2024

The Foreign Agents List

The popular NPR podcast This American Life offers an excellent piece by Masha Gessen on what it feels like to be added to the Foreign Agents list.
Eat. Bake. Protest.
  • January 25, 2023

Eat. Bake. Protest.

How a woman from Moscow turned a cake business into an anti-war protest and helped charities.
The Way Home
  • May 10, 2024

The Way Home

Women and families are fighting to bring their husbands and fathers home.
Rockstar Declared Foreign Agent
  • July 05, 2023

Rockstar Declared Foreign Agent

The Ministry of Justice released a list of new "foreign agents." Among them is Boris Grebenshchikov, a respected founder of Russian Rock.  
Meduza Declared Undesirable
  • January 27, 2023

Meduza Declared Undesirable

On January 26, Russia’s Prosecutor General declared the popular publication Meduza an “undesirable” organization.
New Foreign Agent Bill Hits Close to Home
  • April 22, 2016

New Foreign Agent Bill Hits Close to Home

Russia’s law on foreign agents may be getting increasingly draconian. In its latest iteration, any charity could be deemed a political tool of international forces.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955