Crimean journalist Lutfiye Zudieva to appeal being added to Russia's "foreign agents" list

Crimean Tatar journalist and human rights activist Lutfiye Zudieva has filed a lawsuit contesting her inclusion in the Russian “foreign agents” register, Zudieva announced on her Facebook page on June 23.

“I am suing the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. I intend to appeal my inclusion in the 'foreign agents' register because I act solely on my own initiative. It is difficult to grasp for those who are used to vertical power structures and receiving instructions from above, but no one dictates to me what to think and how to feel,” Zudieva wrote.

According to her, the Russian Ministry of Justice had no legal grounds for including her in the “foreign agents” register and the order she is contesting is illegal and unfounded.

Lutfiye Zudieva / photo from Lutfiye Zudieva's personal archive

“I don’t need a ‘foreign power’ or ‘external influence’ to see and describe the reality around me: children growing up without parents, systematic searches and arrests, people’s pain and anxieties. I choose the topics, subjects, and formats for my reporting myself. But most often what they need is normal human support,” the journalist wrote.

As IMI reported, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Lutfiye Zudieva to the “foreign agents” register in May 2025. In a comment to IMI, Zudieva said that the news was not a surprise for her. She explained that when someone works to defend the people in Crimea, speaking out and writing about the searches, the arrests, the actions of the Russian law enforcers and special services that exceed their authority and reveal an alternative picture of everything that is happening in Crimea, which does not align with the picture painted by Russian propaganda, then being included in such a list of outlawed, undesirable people becomes a matter of time.

Lutfiye said that she did her work consciously and would continue to perform her journalist duties.

Persecution of journalist Lurfiye Zudieva

On February 22, 2024, officers of Russia's Center for Combating Extremism searched Lutfiye Zudieva's house. After the search, she was taken away to the counter-extremism center, but later released.

The police opened an administrative case against her under Parts 2 and 2.1 of Art. 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (abuse of freedom of mass information). The investigation was triggered by her Facebook post about the unlawful persecution of alleged Hizb ut-Tahrir members, as she did not mention that Hizb ut-Tahrir is considered a terrorist organization by Russia, and also cited a Radio Liberty article without noting that the media outlet is considered a "foreign agent" by Russian law.

In March 2024, the Russia-controlled Kyiv District Court in Simferopol fined the human rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudieva 2,500 rubles (UAH 1,000). Roman Filatov of the Russian Counter-Extremism Center (CEC) charged her with "abuse of freedom of mass information."

According to Zudieva, the judgement was issued without her participation and the court did not review the written objections of the defense. She believes that she is not an offender and as a natural person was not obliged to comply with the requirements, and that the head of the Crimean CEC department Ruslan Shambazov essentially treated her personal Facebook page as a registered media outlet.

In April 2024, a Russian court in Crimea fined the Crimean Tatar human rights activist and citizen journalist Lutfiye Zudieva, finding her guilty of "abusing the freedom of mass information.

On May 7, 2024 Crimean human rights activist, journalist Lutfiye Zudieva was handed a warning from the Russian Center for Combating Extremism.

In June 2024, he Russia-controlled Kyiv District Court of Simferopol considered the appeal against the verdict fining the human rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudieva and upheld the ruling to impose an administrative penalty on her.