Journalist Maksim Kuzakhmetov has been placed on a wanted list after receiving four fines under the “foreign agent” regulations.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has placed St Petersburg journalist Maksim Kuzakhmetov on the federal wanted list. He has been fined four times under protocols for violating the “foreign agent” legislation. This was reported by Mediazona.

It is unknown which article the journalist is being sought under, or what he is specifically accused of. Kuzakhmetov has stated that he does not know what the grounds for the prosecution are.

“Everything is listed in my 'foreign agent' case: justification of Nazism, fakes, discrediting, separatism and everything else—except LGBT (for some reason). So I’m left guessing,” he said.

• Maksim Kuzakhmetov is a journalist, former host on the “Echo of Moscow” radio station, presenter of the YouTube channel “Ishchem vykhod” (“Looking for a Way Out”), and a supporter of establishing an independent Ingermanland—an area around St Petersburg.
• He was recognised as a “foreign agent” in June 2023. A year later, in September 2024, he was fined 30,000 roubles (about US$330) for not labelling his publications as belonging to a “foreign agent” (part 4, article 19.34 of the Administrative Code).
• In the same period—from late August to mid-October 2024—he was fined twice for failing to comply with other “foreign agent” requirements (part 2 and part 4, article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). The total amount of fines, including the one for missing labels, reached 110,000 roubles (about US$1,200).
• In June this year, Kuzakhmetov received another fine (part 2, article 19.34 of the Administrative Code), but the official ruling has not yet been published, so the amount is unknown.