(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – December 28, 2012) Ludmila Alexeyeva, a leading Russian human rights advocate, is ready to defend the job she might lose under the newly adopted Russian response to the Magnitsky Act, she told RIA Novosti on Friday. The bill signed by President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day prohibits holders of US passports […]
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WASHINGTON, December 20 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) – US groups financing politically active nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia are facing a potentially jarring shake-up of these programs amid Moscow’s escalating clampdown on such funding. The question now is: What are they going to do about it? At least two US taxpayer-funded organizations viewed with suspicion by the Russian […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 21, 2012) A local human rights organization has become the first NGO to voluntarily submit an application for being registered as a foreign agent to better understand the practical implementation of the new law regulating activities of nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign funds. Human rights organization Shchit i Mech, or Shield and Sword, registered […]
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(Interfax – December 18, 2012) No Russian non-government organizations have registered as “foreign agents” nearly a month after being required to do so under a new law, Interfax news agency reported on 18 December. The Ministry of Justice has added a section to its website with the rules for the register, an application form and the register itself. “We’re awaiting […]
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MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Justice Ministry on Thursday denied reports that a regional branch of the No to Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Foundation had been warned under the new “foreign agent” law. “This requirement [to disclose sources of foreign funding] has existed since 2006. Thus, the warning issued is in no way linked to the coming into […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – Social activity is not a subject of the law on “foreign agent” NGOs, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin’s election agents on Sunday. “Concerning the recent lawa(euro) There is no change with regard to social affairs, such as hospices. They are unrelated to political activity,” he said. Such organizations are not subject to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 10, 2012) In a live television interview, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed support for a range of legislation that critics say is part of a crackdown on the political opposition, including a law requiring certain NGOs to register as foreign agents. But the former president also conveyed liberal positions on several […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 25 November) Russia’s oldest NGO, the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), has called upon Russians to make donations for human rights projects as the law on “foreign agents” came into force (on 21 November). “Dear fellow citizens! The Moscow Helsinki Group is calling on all individuals and legal entities to participate in raising funds in order for MHG […]
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MOSCOW, November 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s insistence that NGOs of a “political” nature funded from abroad register as “foreign agents” has been tied down in paperwork – or, rather, the lack of it. The NGOS affected by the controversial law were required by law to register their new legal status with the Justice Ministry by November 21, but the […]
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MOSCOW, November 21 (Dan Peleschuk, RIA Novosti) The Moscow headquarters of two influential human rights groups were vandalized on Wednesday, the first day a controversial new law on non-governmental organizations (NGO) took effect. The entrances to the offices of Memorial and For Human Rights, two prominent civil rights groups headed by veteran activists, were spray-painted with the words “Foreign […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has criticized the statements made by representatives of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Memorial, Golos, and the For Human Rights movement, which have publicly refused to comply with the law on foreign agents. “I can only say that the law has been adopted and needs to be observed,” Naryshkin told […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – November 20, 2012) Although much-debated amendments for nongovernmental organizations go into force this Wednesday, do not expect foreign-funded NGOs to rush to re-register as “foreign agents” with the Justice Ministry. Prominent rights activists have announced they would boycott the new law, which they have lambasted as imposing an insulting title that makes […]
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Yekaterina Kravtsova – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 24, 2012 The State Duma tentatively approved a bill on Friday to broaden the legal definition of high treason, seen by human rights groups as part of a continuing crackdown on foreign-funded organizations in Russia. While lawmakers contend that the bill would make the work of law enforcement authorities more effective, […]
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