Both arms of the Russian legislature have approved a bill that requires non-governmental organisations engaging in political activity and receiving foreign funding to register as “foreign agents”. The Duma, the Russian parliament, and the Upper House have given approval to the bill and it now only requires President Vladimir Putin’s signature to become law.
Vladimir Putin's United Russia party pushed forward the legislative change and claims that foreign governments are using NGOs in Russia as a covert means of bring about political change. An MP for the party has said, “there is so much evidence about regime change in Yugoslavia, now in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, in Kosovo – that’s what happens in the world, some governments are working to change regimes in other countries...Russian democracy needs to be protected from outside influences”.
Critics of the bill argue that the government is attempting to restrict civil society. The term "foreign agent" carries negative Soviet-era connotations in Russia and was a used as a term for Cold War spies. A member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a leading human rights NGO, has said that the group would never register as a foreign agent. The member stated, “my organisation has to operate with foreign funding because the Russian government will never give it any money”. Another foreign-funded NGO, Golos, has said that election monitoring could be considered a political activity under the bill. Director Liliya Shibanowa said “if that is the case, it’s a judicial matter. It’s also a matter for the international community. If this isn’t examined thoroughly by the Constitutional Court we’ll have to go to the Strasbourg court [of human rights]”.
Opponents of the bill have called for US and European officials to place travel bans on the authors of the bill. This would be extremely difficult however as every United Russia deputy in the parliament has signed as a co-author. Dmitry Shabelnikov, local director of PILnet says, “according to the Russian bill, it doesn’t matter how and for what purposes the money is received and spent...(and) 'political activities' is not a legally defined term, which further leaves the bill open to wide interpretation”. Shabelnikov told PILA that the legislation was slightly mitigated by the fact that several types of organisations are exempt (mainly charitable, social and religious). He also said that on the same day the Russian criminal code was amended to re-criminalise libel.
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