Russian BBC staff fear for loved ones after being labelled 'foreign agents'

Russian BBC journalists who have been labelled "foreign agents" by Vladimir Putin's regime say they are unable to see their children, forced to sell their homes and are in effect banished from their country.

- Michael Savage

They must report their finances, down to supermarket receipts, to the state and there have been practical impacts on family members in Russia. The journalists said the label was designed to make them "toxic" to any Russians who were thinking of speaking to independent media.

The risk of arrest bars them from returning to their home country. The tactic of designating journalists as foreign agents is regularly deployed by the Russian authorities. Seven BBC journalists have been given the label, most of them since January.

Six of them spoke to the Guardian. They live outside Russia after the BBC moved operations out of the country following the 2022 Ukraine invasion.

Ilya Abishev said his "big personal problem" was that he could not see his adult children. He said they had no automatic right to settle in the EU, "while I can't go to Russia because it is quite dangerous".

He added: "I don't rule out that, in the near future, my family may face problems in Russia - as children of an 'enemy of the people', to use the Soviet-era phrase."