Translated material
The authorities of Mari El proposed to limit the participation of officials in NGO events
The administration of the head of Mari El instructed the heads of the ministries and services of the republic to organize explanatory work among subordinates and employees of subordinate enterprises and institutions in order to minimize their participation in the events of non-profit organizations (NPOs), said co-chairman of the regional public organization “Man and the Law” Sergei Poduzov.
Poduzov published the corresponding document on the Internet, signed by the acting. head of the administration of the head of Mari El Stanislav Shvetsov on August 9, 2012. According to the document, the heads of ministries, departments and services of Mari El are asked to carry out organizational and outreach work aimed at “minimizing the participation of your employees and employees of subordinate labor collectives in programs and socio-political events organized and financed by foreign and Russian non-profit organizations.” In addition, work should be aimed at “increasing mass socio-cultural events with the participation of young people in order to distract them from protest actions.”
“In a republic with civil society it is more difficult than in Tatarstan or the Nizhny Novgorod region, you cannot say that organizations have power,” but in other regions he did not encounter such a reaction from the authorities, Poduzov told the Interfax-Volga region agency. According to the human rights activist, “local authorities decided to regulate [the activities of NGOs] in this way because they did not find any other ways.”
At the same time, in his opinion, this document “is not only an excessive intrusion into the activities of NPOs, but also the construction of a vertical.”
The agency’s interlocutor clarified that he received a copy of the published document by e-mail “from well-wishers”; he does not have a list of specific ministries and institutions mentioned in it.
The administration of the head of Mari El advised the agency to seek clarification on this matter from the Chief Federal Inspector for the Republic of Mari El. The SFI staff has so far refrained from commenting.