Crimean journalist, Graty contributor Lutfiye Zudiyeva, who was the first on the occupied peninsula to be added to the “foreign agents” by Russia, has been facing mass harassment on social media, Zudiyeva tells Suspilne Crimea.
“After I was added to the list, a surge in insults and harassment began. Telegram channels wrote that I should be expelled from Crimea. This creates a distorted image that can impact one’s social ties. A part of Crimean society that is prone to propaganda falls for this propaganda and accepts the stigma at face value. This is another tool of pressure that makes one’s life much more difficult,” Zudiyeva says.
She said that she now has to label even her personal photos with a special “foreign agent” caption.
“Now I have to label even photos with my child or a landscape. This is absurd and humiliating, which demonstrates Russia’s true attitude towards independent journalists,” she said.
Persecution of journalist Lutfiye Zudieva
In May 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Zudiyeva to the “foreign agents” register. In a comment to IMI, Zudiyeva said that the news had not been unexpected. 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.
In August 2025, Lutfiye Zudiyeva received a notice from the Russian Ministry of Justice summoning her for drawing up an administrative protocol. Zudiyeva was charged with violating the law on “foreign agents” (Part 1, Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
In September 2025, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow upheld the decision by the Russian Ministry of Justice to declare journalist and human rights activist Lutfiye Zudiyeva a “foreign agent.”
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.
In September 2025, the Russian-installed court of Canköy district fined Graty journalist and human rights activist Lutfiye Zudiyeva 30 thousand Russian rubles (about 15 thousand hryvnias), finding her guilty of violating Russia’s “foreign agents” law.
