Veteran human rights defender: Russia should scrap ‘foreign agents’ law

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 4, 2013) A veteran Russian human rights defender insisted on Thursday that Russia ditch its law that prescribes “foreign agent” status for foreign-funded Russian nonprofit organizations (NPOs) that are involved in domestic political activities.

“I am convinced that this law must be repealed,” Lyudmila Alexeyeva, leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group, told Interfax.

She was commenting on assurances by President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday that amendments would be drafted to the law to prevent authorities from demanding “foreign agent” registration from foreign-financed NPOs that stay out of politics.

At the same time, Putin said at a conference with rights activists, “as for the essence of the law itself, or, more exactly, what has been the cause of most of the arguments – whether organizations that are involved in domestic political activities need to be registered as foreign agents, – we won’t change that: if people are involved in domestic political work and are getting their money from abroad, society has the right to know whose money keeps them going.”

Trying to draw a distinction between supposedly political and non-political NPOs is a senseless enterprise, according to Alexeyeva.

“Dividing NPOs into those that are involved in politics and those that aren’t is a matter of judgment. I may not necessarily consider as politics something that somebody else does, and vice versa. Who will decide what politics is?” she said.

“Regardless of whether I elected any specific person or not, I may state my opinion of them, and that’s not politics at all. It’s a civil right. People who are in politics have a different idea of what politics is from my opinion of it,” Alexeyeva said.

“It is NPOs themselves that should decide what they should do and not the authorities. In our country everyone deals with the NPO problem – the leadership of the country, parliament, the department for anti-extremism measures, the Interior Ministry, the prosecution service,” she said.

The “foreign agents” law has led to “endless inspections of nongovernmental organizations, and for all sorts of reasons as well,” Alexeyeva said. “The law on NPOs limits our right to freedom of association. But that right is guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Another prominent human rights defender spoke in the same vein.

“This law needs to be repealed and rewritten. And the new law must ban NPOs that take part in elections from getting money from abroad,” Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human Rights group, told Interfax on Thursday.

For Human Rights was recently evicted from its office in the center of Moscow by city authorities.

The “foreign agents” law “has paralyzed the civil sector,” Ponomaryov said.

“We’re all stuck in courts. I’m involved in five court actions at the moment. The law on NPOs that prescribes that human rights defenders register as foreign agents has led to the baiting of human rights defenders throughout the country,” he said.

The “foreign agents” law came into force in November 2012. In March, the prosecution service, Federal Tax Service and Justice Ministry launched inspections of rights organizations. On April 9, news came that the Justice Ministry had started proceedings against Golos, a group defending the rights of voters that refuses to register as a “foreign agent.”

All leading independent Russian human rights groups boycott the “foreign agents” law.