The organization with the same name ended up on the Russian black list of “foreign agents”. Way home (road home in Italian), made up of mothers, wives and daughters of Russian soldiers employed in the invasion of Ukraine, who are fighting for the return of their loved ones from the front. The decision was taken by Moscow’s Justice Ministry, which accuses the movement of having painted “a negative image” of Russia and its army, and of having “encouraged illegal protests” against the government. The Foreign Agents Register is a tool used by the Russian government to target political opponents, human rights activists and non-governmental organizations that criticize Kremlin policies. Inclusion on this list entails strict administrative control and forces organizations labeled as foreign agents to operate under strict surveillance, often forcing many of them to close down.
What is the Way Home movement
Specifically, the name of Maria Andreyeva, 34 years old and one of the leaders of the Way Home movement, who released a statement toAfp condemning the Kremlin’s move as “unjust” and announcing his intention to challenge it. The Way Home movement was born in September 2022, about seven months after the invasion of Ukraine, when Russian soldiers were mobilized to reinforce troops after Kiev retook some areas of the country. The wives and mothers of some of the 300 thousand men called up to arms have begun to organize public demonstrations and to develop an alternative narrative to that of the State, asking for demobilization and pointing the finger at the government and President Vladimir Putin, accused of being the directly responsible for the war. The movement communicates mainly through Telegram, where it has more than 38 thousand members. However, it is subject to frequent attacks by pro-government bots and as of December 2023 has been reported as fake by the platform due to excessive reporting.
The other targets on the black list
In addition to the Way Home movement and its members, the Kremlin has extended the blacklist to include the newspaper Sota, targeted for her opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, the human rights activist Marina Litvinovich and Yekaterina Duntsova, the well-known pacifist journalist and political outsider who had already been banned by the authorities from running in the presidential elections of March. In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Russia for enacting the 2012 Foreign Agents Law, noting that this law violates the right to freedom of association and freedom of expression. Despite international directives, the Russian regime continues to repress internal dissent and has passed a gag law that provides for up to 15 years in prison for those who oppose the invasion of Ukraine.
