September 05, 2024

Where Is the Foreign Agent?


Where Is the Foreign Agent?
Man showing politician Elvira Vikhareva's picture in a supermarket. Elvira Vikhareva, Facebook.

Moscow opposition politician Elvira Vikhareva recently announced on Facebook that strange men were stalking her, asking for information on her whereabouts in the supermarket near her house. Vikhareva is notorious for her opposition to the Kremlin and for pushing opposition figures to run in elections.

Vikhareva publicly opposed Russia's War on Ukraine since it began. As a result, in April 2022, someone attached a sign to her door that read, "She supports the Ukrainian Nazis." In April 2023, she was declared a foreign agent. Yet she still announced her intention to run for the Moscow Duma and invited others with her legal status to become candidates. Shortly after, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that forbade foreign agents from standing for election.

On August 31, Vikhareva posted on Facebook security camera footage from a local supermarket of a blue-suited man showing her picture to the cashier and shoppers. According to the politician, the man asked people about "when I come, when I leave, how often they see me, and if they see me at all."

Vikhareva also reported that strange men call her neighbors via the building intercom, saying they have a package from France for the politician. She said she never ordered anything nor is she expecting anything. Vikhareva wrote, "The 'courier' hangs around the windows all day." Days earlier, the dissident received multiple messages offering free dog food if she met with the unknown person face to face.

In March 2023, SOTA reported that Vikhareva was poisoned with heavy metal salts. In December 2022 and February 2023, high levels of potassium dichromate, a highly carcinogenic substance, were found in her blood. Vikhareva's deteriorating health caused her to stop showing up in public, as the poisoning had affected her appearance.

In her latest Facebook post, Vikhareva wrote, "And I also remind you that I don't do drugs (...), I do not drink alcohol, I do not expect any 'guests'." She ended her message with, "If someone wants to ruin my life or the life of my loved ones, it will not go down quietly. I guarantee it."

You Might Also Like

Fulbright Foreign Agents?
  • June 20, 2024

Fulbright Foreign Agents?

Now that Fulbright has been declared an "undesirable organization," what will happen with its current and former Russian researchers?
The Path to Foreign Agenthood
  • June 01, 2024

The Path to Foreign Agenthood

A grassroots organization fighting for the rights of mobilized soldiers has been declared a foreign agent.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 

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