U.S. NGOs’ Decision To Move Russian Staff Divides Observers

(RIA Novosti – January 30, 2013)

Reports on 30 January that two US NGOs have closed their Russian branches and taken Russian staff to Lithuania over concerns for their safety prompted a mixed reaction from public figures and commentators. Some said the move was understandable in light of changes to legislation, introduced in November 2012, which require foreign-funded NGOs to register as “foreign agents”. Others played down the significance of the NGOs’ decision.

Heavyweight liberal Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that American NGOs National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republic Institute (IRI) have not only closed their branches in Russia but have also taken Russian employees abroad with their families because of concerns about political persecution.

NDI says staff moved to Vilnius temporarily

For its part, NDI confirmed in a statement to RIA Novosti that it has taken the staff from its Russian branch to Lithuania.

“In light of the recent departure (from Russia) of USAID and other events in Russia, at the current time NDI is considering the options for how to carry out its mission in the most effective way. Staff members of NDI were temporarily moved to Vilnius at the end of October,” NDI said.

NGOs’ decision understandable

Head of the Russian branch of Amnesty International Sergey Nikitin told Ekho Moskvy radio that the NGOs’ decision to shut their Russian branches is understandable in view of the nervous atmosphere created by the recent changes to the law.

“It is a totally predictable development of events. It is evident that relations between the USA and Russia are not the best at present, which the recent change to legislation is evidence of. The concept of espionage and the concept of state treason were expanded, and a ban was introduced on citizens with dual nationality participating in the management of public organizations. The decisions by the organizations to somehow protect their employees are completely understandable,” he said.

Nikitin added that Amnesty International is not intending to stop its activities in Russia.

“We are not holding any talks on abandoning Russia; we feel the nervousness, not in our ranks but in the situation which prevails in society,” he said.

“All of this shows the very unattractive picture of the state of civil society in Russia in light of the recent changes to legislation,” he said.

West losing interest in Russia

Prominent journalist and member of the Public Chamber Nikolay Svanidze told Ekho Moskvy that NGOs are leaving Russia not only because of the law on NGOs but also because Western countries are losing interest in Russia.

“It is perfectly clear that the law on NGOs put American ones in a difficult position in legal terms, but there is the general situation – the Americans are losing interest in cooperation with Russia in those areas which are not pragmatically necessary for them,” Svanidze said, adding that other Western countries’ attitudes towards Russia are the same.

“If we continue along the same path, if we adopt the same laws as the Anti-Magnitskiy and homophobic ones, if we take a path which differs sharply from the ideas of Western civilization, what do we expect?” he said.

Speaking about the departure of the NGOs’ employees from Russia, he said that people cannot freely perform their duties and are ready to leave a country where “it is becoming uncomfortable” for them.

“It is a very big problem that people, as a rule with higher education, are leaving the country. For now, thankfully, the borders are transparent and it is possible to choose regarding which country to live in,” he added.

NDI will return to Russia

Political analyst, Public Chamber member and former One Russia (United Russia) MP Sergey Markov, who previously worked as a senior scientific consultant for NDI, told Ekho Moskvy that the closure of NDI’s office in Russia is a mistake and the organization will return as soon as Russian-US relations improve.

“NDI’s departure from Russia is a mistake. I am sure that this mistake will be rectified. I am sure that in the next year to eighteen months there will be an improvement in Russian-US relations. We will see a warming and normalization of relations in the area of civil society and we will witness the return of NDI to Russia,” Markov said, noting that the organization’s activities could be reformatted.

“It seems to me that it is necessary not so much to help specific political forces as to disseminate the experience of democratic practices, which has been accumulated in the USA. In Russia, people would become acquainted with this experience with great interest. I think that NDI will work in Russia, but slightly differently,” he said.

He added that he thinks that the closure of NDI’s office was a private decision by the organization’s management and not related to the USA’s position.

NGOs wanting to stay will find ways

Head of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and Development of the State and One Russia MP Vladimir Pligin told Ekho Moskvy that he does not think that foreign NGOs will begin to leave Russia en masse. He added that NGOs wanting to stay in Russia will find ways to do so.

“All of those organizations which consider the continuation of their activities necessary and possible, they will have both the legal opportunities and organizational opportunities to continue such activities. I think that this is the policy of two organizations. At the same time, I know that a number of organizations discussed with their legal consultants the possibility of and need for adjustments. In those cases when it was important, the issue of searching for additional sources of financing, particularly from legal entities in the Russian Federation was also considered. But each organization, of course, takes the decision independently,” Pligin said.

Pligin added that Russia is interested in the work of human rights organizations on its territory.

Closure of NGOs’ branches

The closure of the NGOs’ Russian branches at the end of 2012 was attributed at the time to the tougher laws on NGOs. However, Kommersant reported that due to concerns about the safety of seven Russian employees, NDI and IRI took them to Lithuania along with their families.

Kommersant’s source said that following the adoption of the laws complicating the work of NGOs the heads of the NDI and IRI branches started to receive more frequent visits from the Federal Security Service.

“We were working in an increasingly nervous atmosphere. US central office knew that a hostile atmosphere was growing here,” the NGO employee said.

“Proceeding from the fact that we were not being allowed to work, they decided to close down the Russian branch. And knowing that we were being threatened with charges of treason, the leadership proposed that we leave and organized our relocation to Lithuania.”