Russia on Friday added a former speechwriter to President Vladimir Putin to its foreign client registry, along with one of the country’s most popular singers and a prominent opposition politician who has fled abroad.
Russia’s Justice Ministry said Abbas Galliamov “distributed materials created by foreign agents to an unlimited number of people, spoke out against the special military operation in Ukraine, and participated in information platforms provided by foreign structures.”
Galliamov, Putin’s speechwriter during his time as prime minister in 2008 and 2012, was frequently a source of news for foreign media.
The former official attracted attention recently when he appeared on CNN, when he suggested that Putin might face an internal coup.
The Justice Department said it had also placed pop star Zemfira Ramazanova on the list, adding that she “publicly opposed Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and received money from an unspecified foreign source”.
Dmitry Gudkov, a well-known opposition politician before he fled Russia in 2021, has also been designated as a foreign agent.
Russian law requires organizations and individuals who have been determined by the authorities to receive foreign funding to identify themselves as “foreign agents”.
