Russia Blacklists Independent Pollster
Yuri Levada, founder of the Levada Center. Source: Wikipedia Commons
The Russian government declared the Levada Center, Russia’s largest independent pollster, a “foreign agent”on September 5. This move comes just two weeks before Russia’s national legislative elections, in which Russian citizens will select their representatives for the country’s legislative assembly, the Duma.
According to Radio Free Europe, all organizations labeled as “foreign agents” must describe themselves as such in all of their published material and cannot be involved in the political process. The Guardian speculates that the Kremlin’s decision to label the Levada Center as a “foreign agent” may have resulted from a survey the Center published earlier in September showing a significant loss of support for the current ruling party, United Russia. The Levada Center report demonstrates that 50 percent of respondents support United Russia, compared to 65 percent in January.
International reactions to Kremlin’s decision have been mostly negative. The European Union has called on Russia to reconsider its actions, arguing that its blacklisting of the Levada Center is “clearly aimed at restricting [NGO’s] independence and threatening their very existence." The United Nations has echoed these sentiments, calling on the Russian government to change its “foreign agent” law to bring it into “accordance with Russia's international human rights obligations.”
The director of the Levada Center, Lev Gudkov, argues that this an example of the government’s attempt to manipulate the media and control the narrative.
“[The government] is emphasizing the control of public opinion,” Gudkov said.
He also claims that the blacklisting of the Levada Center represents “the beginning of a new phase of political reactionism, the return of totalitarianism.”
He may well be right: the Russian Supreme Court is set to consider a case on September 12 to remove a rival party from the race for making negative comments about Vladimir Putin on television.