The demand of the New Serb Democracy for the urgent introduction of the Foreign Agents Law represents a serious threat to Montenegro’s European integration. This law is a key tool used by autocratic regimes to suppress freedom of speech and undermine democracy. Through analyses and studies addressing Russian malign influence in Montenegro, the DFC warned about the activities of Russian and Serbian proxy actors, particularly emphasizing the problematic nature of the Foreign Agents Law.
Russia and the Foreign Agents Law
The Foreign Agents Law has been applied in Russia since 2012 and has been revised multiple times over the past decade to include an increasing number of potential targets for state-led discrimination. To date, more than 500 organizations, journalists, activists, artists, and other public figures have been granted this status. Currently, any organization, media, or individual can be designated as a foreign agent simply by being declared by the Russian Ministry of Justice as being under foreign influence or for receiving any amount of money from abroad (or from entities that themselves receive foreign funds). Categories that can be recognized as foreign agents include: Russian or foreign legal entities, regardless of their organizational and legal form; public associations operating without establishing a legal entity; other associations of individuals; structures from abroad that did not establish a legal entity; individuals, regardless of their nationality; non-profit organizations; media platforms; and individual Russian citizens, including journalists and activists.
Almost all independent media have already been eliminated. Most independent journalists have been forced to flee the country, and as a result of anti-media laws, journalists and other activists face very harsh prison sentences. No journalist is protected from threats of serious charges under vaguely formulated repressive laws that are often passed overnight. Many laws related to freedom of expression that have been adopted in recent years—including laws on defamation and fake news —were amended to be included in the Criminal Code at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The invasion of Ukraine provided new impetus for this process, with the Russian parliament adopting amendments according to which false information about the Russian armed forces and any other Russian state body operating abroad is punishable by up to 15 years of imprisonment.
Russian Proxies
Inspired by Russia, numerous autocratic regimes around the world employ identical legal mechanisms to consolidate power and suppress any dissonant tones. Under the leadership of President Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian government introduced changes in 2011 that established criminal liability for local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving foreign grants and donations if they violate local legislation. They were also prohibited from holding funds in foreign banks. That same year, the Criminal Code was amended to expand the definition of treason to include any form of assistance from foreign states or organizations if it could threaten Belarus’s national security. This has further increased the risks for NGOs and civil society. In recent years, Lukashenko has continued to tighten control over civil society. Decrees issued in 2015 and 2020 intensified reporting requirements for received foreign donations and restricted the types of assistance, prohibiting foreign funding in the fields of arts, scientific research, and human rights. The Department for Humanitarian Activities was granted greater powers to oversee the use of foreign funding, prioritizing projects approved by the state. In January 2023, Lukashenko’s regime secretly adopted the Law on the Seizure of Property, later justifying it as a response to hostile actions. Through the abuse of these laws, Lukashenko’s autocratic regime has managed to completely suppress freedom of speech and any form of opposition activity, with the arrests of numerous journalists, members of the NGO sector, civic activists, and opposition politicians.
Georgia is the most striking example of the harmful consequences of the Foreign Agents Law. The pro-Russian proxy government in Georgia exploited institutional advantages and adopted a Law requiring organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents. The adoption of this law led to large protests in the country and further destabilization of society. The EU suspended accession negotiations with Georgia, halting the pro-European agenda in the country.
After the adoption of the Foreign Agents Law in Georgia, proponents of its adoption attempted to relativize its discriminatory and anti-European provisions by comparing it to the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The American law was passed in 1938 with the aim of curbing Nazi propaganda. Unlike the Russian or Georgian laws, this law does not require civil society organizations to register solely based on foreign funding. Furthermore, in accordance with FARA, organizations that disagree with the official policies of the U.S. are not censored or financially penalized. However, pro-Russian proxy actors have used the existence of this Law to realize an agenda in their countries that contradicts European values and promotes authoritarian tendencies, suppressing the freedom of civil society and limiting the activities of independent media and non-governmental organizations.
Hungary, a member of the European Union, is trying to emulate Russia by adopting the Law on Defense of National Sovereignty in December 2023 and establishing the Sovereignty Protection Office in February 2024, which is tasked with gathering information on all groups or individuals that benefit from foreign funding and influence public discourse. In October 2024, the European Commission announced that it would sue Hungary at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for potential violations of the rights to privacy and freedom of expression and association due to the adoption of this Law. Hungary adopted a similar law in 2017, aimed at targeting organizations financed from abroad, but it was annulled in 2021 after the European Court of Justice ruled that it was not in accordance with European Union regulations.
A similar law is being prepared in Slovakia. The law, which was adopted in its first reading in April 2024, would treat organizations that receive more than five thousand euros from abroad as organizations with foreign support. The text of the law requires non-governmental organizations to provide authorities with information about the identity of their donors, and it also includes the possibility for the Ministry of the Interior to impose financial penalties or dissolve those that do not comply with the law. The European Union has warned Slovakia that it could face sanctions from the EU due to the adoption of this law.
All of the mentioned laws are modeled after the Russian Foreign Agents Law and were adopted by Russian proxy authorities or ruling elites sympathetic to Vladimir Putin’s regime. In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that the Russian Foreign Agents Law violated the European Convention on Human Rights by denying freedom of assembly and association.
The Western Balkans
Russian malign influence is strongly present in the Western Balkans, and one way this influence manifests is through the promotion of the Russian authoritarian system of governance. The President of the Republic of Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik, has announced several times the introduction of a foreign agents law in that Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity. However, in May 2024, he announced that the Draft Law on the Special Registry and Transparency of the Work of the Nonprofit Organizations has been withdrawn from the parliamentary procedure. Dodik stated that the Republic of Srpska is committed to the European path, adding that the law was withdrawn for further alignment and harmonization with European practices, as well as that the law would be returned to the procedure thereafter. The draft of the law stipulated special oversight and the possibility of banning the activities of non-governmental organizations that receive funding from abroad, prohibiting political activities, as well as the requirement for additional registration and the submission of financial reports.
In Serbia, the ruling structures constantly target opposition media and the non-governmental sector as foreign mercenaries, while certain pro-Russian and pro-Serbian media and far-right structures in Montenegro identically target the NGO sector in order to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity. Russian proxies in the region aim to further promote authoritarian values in the Western Balkans in this way.
The DFC continuously highlights the issue of foreign interference aimed at undermining democracy and altering Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic course. The demand for the introduction of the Foreign Agents Law is the latest blatant example of this intention. It is evident that pro-Russian and pro-Serbian structures that are part of the government in Montenegro are attempting to halt the democratization process of Montenegro and its European path with such proposals, promoting the use of resources and methods from the arsenal of the official Kremlin.
Representatives of Russian-Serbian influence who are part of the current parliamentary majority in Montenegro are trying to shift boundaries and, following an established methodology of gradually acclimatizing Montenegrin society to previously unacceptable views and unimaginable solutions, realize an initiative aimed at suppressing civil society organizations and independent media that promote values aligned with the proclaimed national interests and strategic goals reflected in Montenegro’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration process. In this way, additional space would be opened for the completely unimpeded operation of autocratic regimes, primarily those in Belgrade and Moscow, whose agenda includes, among other things, denying the European future to the citizens of Montenegro. Blocking Montenegro’s European path is a clear objective of Russia, as publicly stated by the recently former ambassador of the Russian Federation to Montenegro.
Unfortunately, in Montenegro, there is no institutional fight against foreign interference and disinformation. The only barrier against these anti-democratic phenomena in Montenegrin society is organizations such as the Digital Forensic Center.