Russian police says NGOs made no complaints over ‘foreign agent’ checks

April 16, 2013 JRL Russia List Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Foreign Policy, Security, Visas, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

(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 NGO checks.

He said the Interior Ministry was willing to check any information about possible unlawful actions of the police during the monitoring measures, and to punish anyone guilty.

“If there are any complaints against the actions of our staff, we are willing to examine these complaints and to use against anyone guilty the measures in line with our law ‘On police’,” the deputy interior minister said.