Is it odd that the article does not actually mention WHY the gov designated this as a foreign interest?
We got a word for that kind of odd in English, it’s called “suspicious”.
Usually the legal basis for "foreign agent" designation is not availeble. Petr Manyakhin who was designated a "foreign agent" himself and countered this in a court, received a legal justification from Ministry of Justice who argued that Manyakhin received funding in foreign currencies based on three USD bank transfers, which were between Manyakhin's own accounts. Further reasons given were a single retweed in support of "Meduza" and Manyakhin's 2020 article about torture in Novosibirsk police.[35]
A 2021 report by OVD-Info goes into great detail about the existing legislation and practice of its application. While the government claims that the designation does not prevent freedom of speech, and merely ensures transparency about who is speaking, the report clearly indicates that the regulation had a strong chilling effect on media, which avoid quoting organizations and individuals designated as foreign agents, and the designated themselves withdraw from public debate as result of high financial fines imposed by Roscomnadzor for example for missing a long legal disclaimer even on a social media share of someone else's post.
Furthermore, any entities designated as foreign agents are prohibited from acting as election observers, legislative experts, candidates to public supervisory commissions and other public functions. At the same time the criteria for the designation are extremely broad and vague, from actually receiving foreign grants to "participation in an international conference with accommodation at the expense of the organizer", "gift from friends or relatives living abroad" or even transfer of own funds from an own account in foreign currency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_foreign_agent_law