Muddying the waters

The Levada Center, which carries out sociological research, received a warning from the prosecutor's office, which states that the publication of the results of our sociological research influences public opinion and is therefore not scientific, but political activity. And this means, according to the lame logic of our authorities, that since the center receives funds for its activities from foreign funds, it must register as a “foreign agent.”

In this regard, the center publishes a statement from its director Lev Gudkov, which states:

“The letter received from the interdistrict prosecutor’s office about “circumstances conducive to violation of federal legislation” (namely: the law on foreign agents) and the subsequent warning about the inadmissibility of violating federal legislation puts the Autonomous non-profit organization “Yuri Levada Analytical Center” in an extremely difficult situation, practically forcing it to cease its activities as an independent sociological research organization conducting systematic public opinion polls in Russia. By interpreting analytical articles and the publication of the results of sociological research, comments by Center specialists as “political activity,” the prosecutor’s office actually hangs our organization on the hook of possible sanctions, on the one hand, and undermines its authority and business reputation, on the other. The point is not only in the extremely unclear concepts of “political activity” and “foreign funding”, which allow for the most arbitrary and broad interpretations, and, consequently, the possibility of administrative actions against the leadership of the Center or even the liquidation of our organization, but also in the consequences that The law on NPOs and foreign agents raises concerns in various circles, whose representatives are regular partners, customers or the subject of research conducted by the Center.

We are talking about freedom of scientific activity and dissemination of research results. Levada Center is a non-profit organization. For us, this means that the money we earn - thanks to various custom research (primarily marketing, but not only) - in accordance with our statutory goals, we spend on independent and initiative scientific or humanitarian projects - sociological surveys, publication of the journal "Bulletin of Public opinions”, the yearbook “Public Opinion”, holding regular conferences, etc., rather than using the profits received for our own consumption. It is in this way that our research team, for almost a quarter of a century, has carried out systematic analytical work to study the structure and functions, dynamics of collective ideas, maintaining its status as an independent scientific institute.

Unlike other organizations conducting public opinion polls, we do not have direct government funding or government subsidies for conducting sociological surveys, which, in principle, require significant financial and organizational costs, and in some cases, direct support or permission from local authorities. Funds received from foreign funds (donations or grants won in a competition) or payments for work commissioned by foreign organizations (universities, media, research institutes, or consulting firms) constitute a small part of the Levada Center’s budget: in different years approximately 1.5-3% .

In this regard, voluntary or involuntary refusal of grants or donations from various foreign foundations, necessary in order to free ourselves from the constant danger of being labeled as “foreign agents”, does not save the situation, since the very fact of receiving funds from foreign companies, even if they work permanently in Russia, payment for analytical or research work performed on topics that have nothing to do with “political activity” can already serve as a basis for accusations of foreign funding and linking them to our research initiated in accordance with our own scientific plans and interests.

However, another, much more significant obstacle to our successful work are two circumstances: the fear of interaction with “potential foreign agents”, which is revived today and quite understandable from the past, characteristic of Russian officials and intelligentsia, on the one hand, and the reluctance of our business partners dealing with an organization that has problems with the authorities, their obvious desire to avoid unnecessary troubles, on the other.

All this taken together calls into question the continued existence and activities of the Levada Center. Following the logic of the Prosecutor's Office's Warning, we would have to stop publishing our magazine and close the Levada Center website, stop publishing, openly commenting on and analyzing the results of our surveys among specialists and in the public space - in the media, at seminars and conferences, to which we agree can not.

Undoubtedly, the most correct thing (from the point of view of civil liability) would be to challenge in court the Warning issued to us by the prosecutor's office, as well as subsequent claims to the Constitutional Court about the contradiction of the law on foreign agents itself with the Russian Constitution and other laws of the Russian Federation. However, this path for organizations like ours turns out to be too long, fraught with the collapse of the research organization and irreversible scientific and human losses. Therefore, this option, even in the event of a positive outcome of the trials, in principle does not change the new state of affairs, which makes it impossible to continue the previous work of an independent research institute.

Currently, the leadership of the Yuri Levada Analytical Center is consulting with lawyers and considering possible solutions to the current situation.”