Interfax: Russia can liquidate ‘foreign agent’ NGOs but cannot force them to register

(Interfax – Moscow, June 18, 2013) Russian Justice Minister Aleksandr Konovalov has not ruled out that the register of non-commercial organizations – (serving as) “foreign agents” will never contain a single entry because there is no legal mechanism to forcibly register NGOs as such.

“In accordance with the law, there is a chance that the list of these foreign agents will remain empty forever, and I do not rule out that this is what will happen,” Konovalov said at a meeting of the Presidential Council for Human Rights on Tuesday (18 June).

He explained that it is impossible to oblige an NGO to register as an “agent”. “It is possible to ensure that the organization is liquidated, but it is impossible to ensure that it does so,” Konovalov said.

He thinks that there is a “political stance” in the actions of the NGOs that must register as “foreign agents” but are unwilling to do so.

The justice minister said that often the requirements imposed on parties and organizations are elementary, but nevertheless are not fulfilled, “perhaps in order to preserve the state of confrontation, to have something to talk and debate about.”

“To register everything properly is much more boring. You will need to work hard and prove, to citizens of Russia as well, your competitiveness and relevance,” Konovalov said.

The Russian law that obliges NGOs receiving foreign funding to register as “foreign agents” entered into force on 21 November 2012. In March (2013), officers of the Prosecutor’s Office, Justice Ministry and the Tax Service started to check human rights organizations. The leading Russian human rights organizations are boycotting the law on NGOs.

(At 0919 gmt Interfax quoted the head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, Mikhail Fedotov, as saying that the Council has proposed to amend the wording of the law and replace “foreign agent” with “non-commercial organization receiving foreign funding”. The draft amendments proposed by the Council do not contain the term “agent”, which sounds like a civil law term, Fedotov noted.)