Second Russian NGO fined under ‘foreign agent’ law

(Interfax – May 29, 2013) A group based 300 km northeast of Moscow has become the second Russian non-governmental organization to be fined under a controversial new law that obliges NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are deemed to be involved in “political activities”, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 29 May, quoting a well-known rights watchdog.

The Agora rights group told Interfax that a local magistrate in the city of Kostroma had ruled that the Kostroma Centre for the Support of Public Initiatives had committed an administrative offence by failing to register as a “foreign agent”, and fined the centre R300,000, or just under 10,000 dollars.

According to a statement from Agora, the key argument put forward by prosecutors in Kostroma was that the centre had organized a round table in February to discuss the future of relations between Russia and the United States. Among the speakers at the event was a diplomat from the US embassy, Deputy Minister Counsellor for Political Affairs Howard Solomon, the statement said. It also quoted the prosecutor as saying that, since 2011, the centre has been “systematically receiving funding from foreign sources, including those based on US territory”.

Ramil Akhmetgaliyev, a lawyer from Agora who acted on behalf of the Kostroma NGO during the court case, said his client would be appealing against the magistrate’s ruling. The prosecutor alleged that the centre had failed to register as a “foreign agent”, but Akhmetgaliyev argued in court that the centre had not received any foreign funding since the law entered into force in 2012, adding that the law “is not retroactive”.

In April 2013, election watchdog Golos became the first NGO to be fined under the new law, after a court in Moscow ruled it had failed to declare itself a “foreign agent” despite receiving funds from abroad. Golos said it had returned the money it had received from abroad as soon as it entered its account, and also denied being involved in political activity.