In the last four years, 148 non-governmental organizations have been included on the list of “foreign agents” in Russia, of which 27 have closed down altogether. Amnesty International’s new report ‘Agents of the people’: Four years of “foreign agents” law in Russia highlights the high price Russian society has paid as independent critical non-governmental organizations have been forced to close, valuable services have been restricted and scrutiny of government policy in a wide range of areas has been silenced in what amounts to a calculated assault on freedom of expression.