On 14 August, the Leninsky Court in Makhachkala found journalist Idris Yusupov guilty of violating the law on foreign agents after he protested in support of Palestine and his convicted colleague Abdulmumin Gadzhiyev. The court fined him ₽30,000 ($330). 

According to Caucasian Knot, the administrative protocol was drawn up based on photographs of Yusupov holding solo protests in Makhachkala, which had been published on the Telegram channel of independent outlet Chernovik.

Yusupov pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer requested that the case be dismissed due to the ‘absence of an offence’ as Yusupov did not participate in organising a protest, but instead held his own individual picket. 

Yusupov has held single-person protests weekly in defence of Chernovik editor  Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, among other political prisoners, and in support of Palestine. Gadzhiyev was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security prison colony on charges of terrorism in September 2023, charges human rights organisations maintain are politically motivated. 

[Read more: Daghestani journalist sentenced to 17 years for ‘financing terrorism’]

This is not the first time Yusupov has had an administrative protocol directed against him. In June, he was accused of failing to comply with restrictions related to his status as a ‘foreign agent’, facing a fine of  ₽50,000 ($550). The case was later dismissed due to the fact the protocol had not been personally handed to Yusupov himself. 

Yusupov, a journalist for the Daghestani newspaper Novoye Delo, was originally declared a ‘foreign agent’ in November 2023. Prior to that, in October 2023, his home was searched by security forces as part of the investigation into the mass riots at the Makhachkala airport.

According to Yusupov, the security forces were interested in his transfer of funds to the public organisation Civic Assistance Committee. He explained that at the beginning of 2023, he worked with the project to provide assistance to prisoners from the North Caucasus serving sentences in correctional facilities across Russia. In February 2024, Yusupov reportedly returned money associated with the organisation, after which he filed an application to be removed from the register of foreign agents. 

On 22 March 2024, Interior Ministry officials again searched Yusupov’s home as part of an operational-search measure to ‘find and seize items and documents indicating the receipt of funds from foreign sources, theft of budget funds through fraud, and the financing of extremist activities’.

While the security forces have since returned any equipment seized during the search, applications demanding justification for the search have remained unanswered.