Russia names great-granddaughter of Soviet leader Khrushchev as 'foreign agent'

U.S. academic Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of a former Soviet leader, was designated by Russia on Friday as a "foreign agent" - a term with connotations of spying that Moscow applies to people it views as engaged in anti-Russian activity.

Khrushcheva, 62, is a professor at The New School university in New York and has continued to make research trips to Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Her ancestor Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, when he was ousted by fellow members of the ruling Politburo.

Contacted by Reuters, Khrushcheva said she was not surprised at being added to Russia's "foreign agent" list, which as of Friday contains 1,164 names including politicians, journalists, artists, NGOs and media organisations.

"It would have been sloppy on their part not to do this sooner or later," she said, adding that it was too early to say what the practical impact would be.

STALIN'S RESURGENCE

"There is certainly historical irony but not anything shocking. When Stalin is up, Khrushchev is down," she said.

She was alluding to a resurgence in Russia of the reputation of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, whose reign of terror was denounced by Khrushchev in a famous 1956 address to a Communist Party congress.

Russia marked the 70th anniversary of the speech last month, prompting renewed debate about the legacies of both men.

Khrushchev was the Soviet leader who transferred Crimea to Ukraine from Russia in 1954, an act reversed in 2014 when Russian forces invaded the peninsula and President Vladimir Putin declared its annexation.

Khrushchev is also remembered for facing off against U.S. President John F. Kennedy in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war.

Russian news agency TASS cited the Justice Ministry as saying Nina Khrushcheva had disseminated false information about Russian policies and opposed what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine. 

People listed as foreign agents are subjected to onerous bureaucratic requirements and restrictions on their income in Russia. They are obliged to place the foreign agent label on social media posts or anything else they publish.

Some Kremlin critics have worn the label as a badge of honour, while others say it is a burden that hampers them in their work because it causes other Russians to shun them.