Foreign Agents in Russia - Doria

1.1. Scientific Research on Foreign Agents
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This is not a juridical thesis, I am not going to exact the concept or issue of foreign agents in Russia
in perspective of juridical studies as I do not have the expertise to do it. Neither this is a lingual
thesis examing the language of foreign agents. I do not have required academic competence in
either jurisprudence or linguistics to have focus on them. Instead this is a social science research
combining the aforementioned two to certain limit. I take a look to the socio-political dimension of
the case of foreign agents in Russia in the time of the new law on non-commercial organizations by
examing their discourses. Here the national and international laws are only one dimension of the
social phenomenon I examine and while also the linguistic dimension is co-existing here, the main
focus is in the general social structures: What kind of meanings are given to foreign agents? How
does the law on NKOs or the media news coverage describe it? What does it tell about the foreign
relations of Russia?
I will use both theoretical approach and empirical approach with this empirical case. This is
an empirical research in the sense that I examine actual events and discussions on the subject of
foreign agents. Moreover I will further examine this case in perspective of social science theories,
and research on related issues to place my research into existing theories of the discipline of social
sciences. The research question on foreign agent discourses cannot dispute existing theories because
there are no previous theories on the exact subject. The existing theories can be seen in perspective
of their relevance either or not appearing in the discourses of foreign agents.
My theoretical-methodological standpoint is mostly Foucauldian characterized by theories
and methods originated from Michel Foucault, because my academical background is strongly
influenced by it. As foreign agency does not exist outside discourses, the epistemological point of
view points out that the concept is formed not only by random events but it also can be affected by
and directed with an agenda. When the dispute is about naming, it has potential for political conflict
since the object of definition can be re-named (Palonen 1993, 103). Foucauldian (and feminist)
view is that discourses are tools of embedded power. This takes me to theoretical approach for my
study. I am not looking for a positivist answer to who are foreign agents or what is the purpose of
the usage, but I will try to depict one point of view on how are the discourses of foreign agency
depicted and implemented. This will give some perspective on the agendas of introducing the
foreign agents by law but I try to avoid far-reaching speculations of agencies behind the discourses
and discourse building. Hence I will do a discourse analysis on foreign agents in Russia. In practice
my research presents the juridical definition of foreign agents but my goal is to be critical towards
this definition and reflect how it is defined and implemented in practice. Accordingly, the first
analysis chapter will analyze the discoursive event and the content of foreign agents in the new
NKO law. This is important because the law gave a concrete trigger to the rising of the foreign