The first iteration of the law appeared in 2012, and introduced the term foreign agent to refer to NGOs which receive foreign funding. It's a loaded term in Russian, with strong associations with espionage. In November 2017, mass media got to foreign agents if they received funding from overseas; the move came soon after the state funded news outlet RT by the United States authorities. Since declared foreign agents by the Russian authorities, such as the Anti-Corruption Foundation of opposition politician expand the definition of foreign agent to individuals, at the discretion of the Ministry of Justice, which already maintains online lists of foreign agent NGOs. They also oblige any a foreign agent to first establish a Russian legal entity in order to operate in the country, and require individuals to publicly state this status and submit to intense financial reporting requirements. The punishments for non-compliance are harsh, including prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to five million rubles On November 18, 10 international NGOs signed an as a serious threat to freedom of expression in How do the Russian authorities know a foreign agent when they see The the new amendments, added to the federal laws on information and telecommunications, do not suggest any consistent criteria. Foreign agents, it reads, are individuals disseminating printed, audiovisual, or other messages and material (including by use of the internet) intended for a potentially unlimited circle of people, receiving money and or other property from foreign states, their institutions, international and foreign citizens, stateless individuals and their agents, and or Russian legal entities who receive money and or other property from indicated source officials have stressed that the new law is nothing to worry about. On November 12, Andrei chairman of the Federation Council's commission for protecting state sovereignty and a staunch defender of the “foreign agent laws that the new law differs from the old one only in its detail somebody wouldn't become a foreign agent simply for receiving an international payment. It would require “constant collaboration with already as foreign agents, explained