Russian MP stripped of mandate after being designated foreign agent

The State Assembly (Il Tumen) of Yakutia has prematurely terminated the powers of deputy Alexander Ivanov after he was added to the registry of foreign agents. Ivanov had previously filed a lawsuit seeking to be removed from the list.

The Ministry of Justice added Ivanov to the foreign agents registry on February 27. According to Yakutsk Online, he filed a court claim on March 20 to challenge the designation and requested the regional parliament not to consider stripping him of his mandate. Despite this, the deputies voted to end his term early.

Ivanov was designated a foreign agent following the release of a video from Almaty in which he described “the independence and freedom of the Kazakh people” as Kazakhstan’s greatest wealth and claimed that “the Sakha people do not have this blessing.” He also said that in Yakutia, “sometimes studying one’s own language and history is prohibited.” In February 2025, the Yakut parliament asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice to investigate his statements.

Ivanov was elected to the Il Tumen in September 2023 as a member of the New People party. In 2024, he gave an interview to Turkish blogger Cem Kıran, suggesting that the people of Yakutia “dream of freedom” but are not ready for it. He was subsequently expelled from the party.