Moscow court fines political scientist Ekaterina Shulman on her birthday for missing ‘foreign agent’ label

A Moscow court has slapped a fine of 10,000 rubles (170 euros) on political scientist Ekaterina Shulman for failing to brand herself as a “foreign agent”, head of the Agora human rights organisation Pavel Chikov reported.

“They remember me back home, how moving,” Shulman, who is celebrating her birthday today, commented on the decision.

The political scientist added that one judge initially sent the offence report back to the Russian media watchdog due to mistakes found in it. The agency then sent the report once again without correcting anything, and a different judge accepted it.

“This should not be done even in our times, so my lawyer and I will challenge it further so that my connections to the homeland remain intact,” she explained.

Earlier, Shulman said that the Russian Justice Ministry labeled her as a “foreign agent” for receiving payments from the Echo of Moscow radio station, salary at Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, single-time payment from the charity foundation of billionaire Vladimir Potanin, royalties from the AST publishing house for her book entitled Practical Political Science and for money received from the Strelka Institute.