Kindness, freedom, skill

A number of cultural figures - writers, musicians, artists, actors, directors - spoke out in defense of NGOs, which have recently been subjected to humiliating inspections, which entail accusations that the organizations did not label themselves “foreign agents” in time. It is noteworthy that the letter was signed not only by regular participants in protests - actress Liya Akhedzhakova, writer Boris Akunin, literary scholar, critic Marietta Chudakova - but also by those who prefer to stay away from politics, such as singer Boris Grebenshchikov.

The letter says:

“It is not the job of writers, poets, actors, directors and musicians to teach legislators to pass laws, courts to interpret them, and prosecutors to monitor their implementation. But the situation in relations between the state and non-profit organizations is dangerous and fraught with consequences too dire for us to ignore.
Massive prosecutorial inspections of non-profit organizations are underway across the country. Inspections are carried out in violation of the law, at an unimaginable pace. All this rather looks like a large-scale campaign, the goal of which is to use any means to pass off the social activities of NGOs receiving foreign funding as political.
What Russian NGOs do is known to everyone who is interested in this: they are fighting to ensure that our nature is preserved, that our cultural values ​​are not destroyed, that our children do not die from curable diseases, that victims of Stalin’s terror do not remain nameless, that Russian disabled people live a normal life and felt like full members of society, so that Russian laws were observed in their entirety, and even simply so that husbands did not beat their wives, and parents did not abandon their children. The people engaged in this work are overwhelmingly devotees, and applying the term “foreign agent” to them, which implies activity under the control of foreign sponsors and in their interests, is unfair and dishonest.
Why many Russian NPOs are forced to seek funds for their activities in international charitable foundations is well known to everyone involved in civil activities in Russia: government agencies almost do not support real public initiatives, and businesses dependent on the state also do not risk participating in the financing of NPOs, because that he is afraid of displeasing the authorities.
Wearing the “foreign agent” label is not only offensive to NGO employees, it misleads people who may think that they are being helped not by their fellow citizens, but by foreigners. In addition, the very term “foreign agent” in the mass consciousness is associated with the Stalinist trials, during which hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens admitted absurd accusations under torture, and it was with the label “foreign agent” that they were destroyed by the state machine. Most organizations will not accept the stigma and will choose to close down. This will set civil society back many years and stop its development.
To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to get the law repealed or, at a minimum, amended to change the term “foreign agent” to a more neutral definition, for example, “an organization that receives funding from foreign sources.” In addition, it is necessary to clarify the definition of “political activity”, returning it to its generally accepted meaning.