(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – May 17, 2013) In an April 5 interview to the German channel ARD, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that in the four months after the July law on non-government organisations (NGOs) that brands those that accept donations from aboard as “foreign agents” has been adopted, 654 Russian NGOs received about a $1bn in foreign funding. This comment set off
(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 15, 2013) The operations of the Golos association specializing in monitoring elections in Russia may be suspended for half a year if a court recognizes it as a foreign agent but it still refuses to be registered as such, a Justice Ministry official has said. Speaking at a roundtable discussion at the State Duma on Wednesday, Deputy Director of the Justice Ministry’s department for NGO affairs
(RIA Novosti – May 15, 2013) None of the NGOs financed from abroad and involved in political activities have fulfilled their obligations under the law that requires them to register as “foreign agents”, RIA Novosti new agency quoted the deputy director of the Justice Ministry’s department for NGO issues, Tatyana Vagina, as saying in the State Duma on 15 May. The law that obliges political NGOs financed from abroad to
(opendemocracy.net – Daniel Treisman – May 10, 2013) Daniel Treisman is a Professor of Political Science at UCLA. His work focuses on the politics and political economy of Russia, and on comparative political economy. However much the regime might try to plot a new political trajectory, its only success is in intensifying a feeling of drift and improvisation. Unforced errors are typical for the end of authoritarian regimes, says Daniel
(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 8, 2013) Lev Ponomaryov, executive director of the movement For Human Rights, said human rights activists who have recently met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry proposed the creation of a Russian-U.S. fund to help the human rights movement. “I made a proposal to create a Russian-U.S. fund to support the human rights movement on a parity basis,’ Ponomaryov told a press conference in the
(Interfax – May 8, 2013) Russian rights veteran and head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva has said that the fate of certain NGOs is sealed as regards being required to register as a “foreign agent”. She also criticized the incumbent authorities for their crackdown on dissenters but said she did not expect the return of an Iron Curtain. Interfax news agency carried Alekseyeva’s remarks at an 8 May
(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 8, 2013) Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the movement For Human Rights, believes most of the NGOs operating in Russia are financed from abroad because the “Khodorkovsky case” has deterred Russian businesses from supporting human rights activists. “Businesses tried to begin financing our NGOs. The first person to do that was Khodorkovsky. Everything began very well, but we know how it ended, and Russian businesses were afraid
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 8, 2013) The leaders of some of Russia’s largest nongovernmental organizations raised their concerns about a Kremlin crackdown during a meeting Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry, who was wrapping up a two-day visit, met with the NGO representatives at Spaso House, the Moscow residence of U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, before flying to Rome later in the day, the State Department
(RIA Novosti – Alexey Eremenko – MOSCOW, May 8, 2013) The Kremlin is trying to force the majority of independent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia to shut down their operations, the leaders of two prominent Russian human rights groups said on Wednesday. “Independent [nongovernmental] organizations will simply cease to exist,” Lev Ponomaryov, the head of the For Human Rights group, said at a news conference in Moscow. “There was
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 8, 2013) The Prosecutor General’s Office has branded three more Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as “foreign agents” saying they were financed from abroad, Izvestia daily reported on Wednesday. The latest in a series of NGOs to be listed as foreign agents are the Moscow School of Political Studies, the Urals human rights group and the Public Verdict human rights foundation. “We have discovered three organizations,
(opendemocracy.net – Anna Sevortian – May 1, 2013) Anna Sevortian is an independent expert who was formerly the Director of Human Rights Watch Russia. Gogol’s government inspector was a figure of fun. Russia’s new government inspectors are anything but funny. At a meeting with FSB leaders on 14 February, Vladimir Putin put an end to any doubts about his intention to implement his controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill. ‘We have a
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Koshkin, RBTH – April 30, 2013) While the Russian authorities sum up the results of their large-scale inspections of NGOs, pundits make their guesses as to whether it is possible to reach a compromise on this issue. The large-scale inspections of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have puzzled both experts and NGO representatives. While the authorities are preparing to sum up the results of
(Moscow News - themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 29, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is an editor and correspondent at themoscownews.com As the head of an organization that helps people suffering from cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disorder that affects the lungs, Olga Alekina, of the Aid to Patients with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, wasn’t exactly daunted when prosecutors demanded an explanation for the foreign financing that her organization gets. After all, she’s
(Interfax – April 29, 2013) More than ten members of the Russian Public Chamber have signed a statement in support of yet another NGO being checked in Russia in which they slammed the ongoing mass checks of non-profit organizations in the country in general, saying they lead to significant infringement of civil liberties, Russian news agency Interfax reported on 29 April, quoting the petition published on the website of the
(Interfax - April 30, 2013) The inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGO) are not large-scale and the results will be summarized in late May, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin wrote in a letter to Chairman of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov. “The inspection does not pursue limiting NGO activities, it is preventive and aimed at forcing organizations to follow the demands of the law on foreign agents
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 27, 2013) Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika sees as unacceptable civil society’s pressure on the justice system. “Everyone should mind their own business. When a civil society institution reviews a court ruling, in my opinion, this is just unacceptable,” Chaika said taking questions from Federation Council members on Saturday. “There is nothing unusual in the fact that civil society expresses its position on this or that
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 24, 2013) Representatives of human rights organizations have said that the number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) inspected by state agencies is excessive. “Hundreds of NGOs were inspected by the tax service, the Ministry of Justice, fire, sanitary agencies and other bodies. Some agencies gave ridiculous demands, for instance, to confirm that all employees of the organization were vaccinated for measles,” Deputy Director of the Russian branch
(RIA Novosti – April 24, 2013) The head of the inter-factional group of MPs for cooperation of institutions of civil society with law-enforcement bodies, Mikhail Starshinov, considers the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International organizations to be hostages of their stereotypes and has said that their reports are politicized, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 24 April. On 24 April, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International published reports
(Interfax – Moscow, April 17, 2013) Heads of leading Russian NGOs disagree with accusations levelled by the authorities at the human rights association Golos facing a heavy fine. “We think it is absurd to say that the organization that led the fight for fair elections in Russia is acting in the interests of foreign states and is a foreign agent,” said a statement signed, among others, by MHG (Moscow Helsinki
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 16, 2013) Pavel Chikov, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, said on Monday that a clear set of rules for inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is required. “There are no rules for prosecutors’ checks. In my opinion, this is the main lesson that we should learn from all these NGO checks… Currently, there is no written document to specify
(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 15, 2013) The information on the multi-billion funding of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Russia coming from abroad voiced by the president only partially refers to the NGOs whose activities are controlled by the Justice Ministry. “Of course, not all NGOs that are reported by banks to receive such funding according to the NGO legal status belong to, let’s say, civil society and the types of NGOs
(Interfax – Moscow, April 15, 2013) The Interior Ministry has received no complaints against police with regard to checks of non-commercial organizations, Deputy Minister Mikhail Vanichkin has said. “Since the start of the checks, there has not been a single complaint to date from heads of non-commercial organizations against the actions of the police,” Vanichkin told a special meeting of the Human Rights Council (under the Russian president) devoted to
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 16, 2013) Russian prosecutors have opened a case against a regional non-governmental organization accused of not registering as a “foreign agent” in the wake of a wave of inspections of NGOs, a rights group reported on Tuesday. Alexander Zamaryanov, director of the Kostroma Public Initiatives Support Center, is suspected of being involved in political activities and receiving foreign funding while not being registered as
(Interfax – April 15, 2013) Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said that the information about the foreign funding of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Russia recently disclosed by President Vladimir Putin is reliable. “There is not the slightest reason to doubt the reliability of the said figures,” Peskov said on a Sunday night current events show on Russia 1 channel. Earlier Putin said that almost $1 billion arrived in the
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 12, 2013) The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private foundation based in Washington, D.C., that provides grants and other support to organizations around the world that promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. The NED’s senior director for Europe, Rodger Potocki, recently visited RFE/RL’s broadcast center in Prague and spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson about the ongoing crackdown against nongovernmental
(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 68 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Pavel Felgenhauer – April 11, 2013) Since last March, Russian and international human rights organizations – including such prominent ones as Memorial, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and others – have been harassed by Russian law enforcement and tax authorities, had their premises searched all over Russia, and had documents and computer disks taken. In
(RIA Novosti, MOSCOW, April 12, 2013) Russian election watchdog Golos (Vote, or Voice) has been given notice to vacate its office in Moscow with no explanation, the non-governmental organization’s deputy director Grigory Melkonyants told RIA Novosti on Friday. “Our rental contract is still valid, but the new lessor has informed us they are breaking the contract ahead of its expiry date, which means we have to be out of
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 10, 2013) A number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) performing the functions of a foreign agent are obstructing their inspections and refusing to comply with legitimate demands by supervisory and controlling bodies, the Prosecutor General’s Office said. “It should be emphasized that some organizations receiving financing from abroad, despite inspectors’ legitimate demands, are actively obstructing the ongoing inspections by refusing to provide documents and evading meetings with
(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – rferl.org – April 9, 2013) The Zhukovsky Peoples’ Council this week set up task forces to address a series of issues, including the environment, housing, urban renewal, transportation, and youth affairs. It all seems pretty banal at first glance, except for one small detail. The 15-member council was chosen in a free and fair vote last month at the initiative of local citizens and civic
(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 8, 2013) The historical and enlightenment society Memorial and human rights center Memorial filed a lawsuit on Monday with the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court against the unscheduled inspection by prosecutors. “The Memorial center challenged the unscheduled inspection by the Moscow prosecutor’s office in court, in association with the Justice Ministry and tax experts, which began on March 26. The international Memorial filed the same complaint in court
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 9, 2013) NGO representatives on Monday questioned the validity of President Vladimir Putin’s comment to German television that NGOs in Russia had received about $1 billion from abroad since the “foreign agent” law was adopted in 2012. In the interview broadcast Friday, Putin said there were 654 active NGOs in Russia being funded from abroad. That would mean each organization got
(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 8, 2013) Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the elder human rights activist in Russia and the head of the Moscow Helsinki group, believes the figures given in reports on foreign funding received by NGOs in Russia are overestimated. “This is being done to show that these organizations allegedly have money to burn. Everyone influences public opinion in the way they see fit,” Alekseyeva told Interfax on Monday. “I believe
(RIA Novosti, HANOVER, April 8, 2013) The recent wave of inspections of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia is not aimed at restricting their activity but rather at controlling their foreign funding, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “All our actions are not designed to shut down or ban [the operation of NGOs in Russia] but to put under control the financial flows from
(Interfax, MOSCOW. April 4, 2013) None of the leading NGOs will register as a foreign agent following prosecutors’ inspections, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the head of the Russia’s oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, told Interfax on Thursday. “I know for sure than no one will register. No matter how much they try,” Alekseyeva said. Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman denied that the recent inspections of NGOs are biased earlier
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 5, 2013) Nongovernmental organizations across the country are being threatened with fines stretching to $20,000 or more, as authorities press on with sweeping checks that activists are calling a government-orchestrated crackdown on civil society. Prosecutors have said the checks are aimed at uncovering extremist activity and are routine, but NGOs fear they are part of a wider campaign to bring the
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 4, 2013) The Prosecutor General’s Office has requested documents from elections watchdog Golos and the organization’s newspaper, Grazhdansky Golos, as part of its check into nongovernmental organizations. Golos’ deputy director, Gregory Melkonyants, was presented with a written request for all legal documents, including information on staff, a schedule of activities with a list of participants, and sources of income in front of cameramen from
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 2, 2013) Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin has called on non-governmental organizations (NGO) to assess their ongoing inspections by law enforcement and tax agencies. “We have asked human rights organizations that have been subjected to inspections to send us documents and tell us how the inspections were conducted, how the law was abided by, and if it was not, in what aspects,” Lukin said at
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Joy Neumeyer – April 1, 2013) In 1934, Ivan Nosov appeared in a photo in Pravda, gazing rapt as his friend Joseph Stalin addressed the 17th Party Congress. In 1937, Stalin scribbled “za” (“I approve”) on a list condemning Nosov to death. Nosov is one of 44,500 names that appear in “Stalin’s Shooting Lists,” a disk issued last month by the human rights organization Memorial.
(Interfax – MOSCOW. March 28, 2013) Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council is expecting Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to explain the purposes of numerous inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGO) at the upcoming session of the council in April. “We have asked the Prosecutor General to participate in the council meeting so that representatives of the Prosecutor’s General Office can report the results of these inspections. I hope that we will
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) – The existing system of support for nongovernmental organizations in Russia lacks transparency in many respects which obstructs the strengthening of the role of civil society in Russian life. The conclusion can be drawn from the report “Third sector in Russia: the current state and possible development models” compiled by the Fund for Civil Society. “The absence of established transparent mechanisms of interaction of civil society
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle and Yekaterina Kravtsova – March 29, 2013) The Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia’s oldest human rights organization, on Thursday became the latest NGO inspected in a massive government campaign that has hit hundreds of non-state groups in 25 regions and is unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia, a rights leader said. Prosecutors and Justice Ministry officials on Thursday showed up at the headquarters of the Moscow
(Interfax – March 28, 2013) The international human rights society Memorial is not going to reduce financing from abroad, says Sergei Krivenko, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council and a Memorial board member. “Memorial and all of its organizations will not reject foreign financing, which we are receiving officially and legally under various programs. On the contrary, we believe it is prestigious to win tenders by respected foundations
MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti) A recent series of spot checks on non-governmental organizations in Russia that caused outcry among rights advocates is aimed at establishing their compliance with laws against extremism and the legalization of criminal income, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday. Nationwide NGO inspections have been taking place since last month, and most observers had linked them to a new law that tightens control on NGOs
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – March 28, 2013) Prosecutors on Wednesday continued performing unannounced inspections of nongovernmental organizations, checking the Moscow offices of three prominent groups and summoning two human rights leaders for questioning. Officials have inspected about 2,000 NGOs nationwide in the past month, Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group, said by telephone. On Wednesday, the Moscow offices of Human Rights Watch, Transparency
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg – March 26, 2013) Amnesty International has joined a growing list of organizations raided by Russian officials in recent weeks amid what activists describe as a ruthless Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Prosecutors and tax police on March 25 searched the venerable rights watchdog’s Moscow headquarters, along with three other prominent advocacy groups — the movement For Human Rights, the Public Verdict Foundation, and the
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Stanislav Kuvaldin, special to RBTH – March 27, 2013) Law enforcement organs are conducting mass checks of Russian NGOs. According to information from human rights activists, more than 40 organizations in 16 regions of Russia have already been inspected. The Justice Ministry and the Public Prosecutor’s Office have announced their intention to check up on how the so-called Law on Foreign Agents is
MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) Russian state officials continued a wave of raids on prominent rights organizations on Wednesday that activists describe as a renewed pressure campaign against non-governmental organizations in the country. On Wednesday, officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office and tax control service targeted several more NGOs, including the Moscow offices of Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and the Kazan-based advocacy group Agora. Rachel Denber, Deputy Director
ST. PETERSBURG. March 26 (Interfax) – Prosecutors are conducting an audit on Tuesday in the Memorial anti-discrimination center in St. Petesrburg. “The audit is continuing. We are writing an explanatory letter. The procedures are being conducted in a calm and matter of fact manner. There is something connected with extremism behind the audit,” Memorial Director Olga Abramenko told Interfax. Meanwhile, the rights center Memorial, to which the anti-discrimination center is
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) – The head of Amnesty International’s Russian office Sergei Nikitin announced after police visited the office that he could be summoned to the prosecutor’s office soon. Prosecutors, Justice Ministry and tax officials started an audit on several nongovernmental organizations on Monday, among them Amnesty International, Public Verdict and the Movement for Human Rights. “They spent five hours in a row at the office and they seized
(Interfax – Moscow, March 25, 2013) The Justice Ministry has explained that mass checks at NGOs are being carried out to uncover the organizations that fall under the definition of “foreign agents”. “If breaches of the laws of the Russian Federation are uncovered, including the provisions of the Federal Law “On the introduction of changes to legislative acts as regards the regulation of activities of NGOs which perform the functions
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