The Shield and Sword organization was denied the status of a foreign agent

The Russian Ministry of Justice refused to assign the status of a foreign agent to the human rights organization "Shield and Sword" from Cheboksary. The chairman of the organization, Alexey Glukhov, told PublicPost. So far there is no information about the refusal on the department’s website.

"Shield and Sword" became the first NPO in Russia to voluntarily submit to the department all the necessary documents for inclusion in the register of foreign agents. The relevant documents were sent to the Ministry of Justice in December 2012 by the chairman of the organization, Alexey Glukhov.

Alexey Glukhov, chairman of the Shield and Sword organization:

“Unfortunately, they did not tell us why we were not registered. Over the phone, a representative of the Ministry of Justice said that the answer was sent by mail from Moscow, and did not even want to give the reasons for the refusal. Now, until the very fast Russian Post delivers this letter of happiness to us in Cheboksary, some time will pass. Honestly, I myself don’t know and don’t understand what could be wrong with the refusal. I don’t know either.

The main thing I want to say is that the refusal procedure was not provided for at all! This shows that the Ministry of Justice, regardless of its regulations, takes various actions.

We, of course, are not foreign agents - when we submitted the application, we were not trolling the Ministry of Justice, we rather wanted to conduct a “test purchase”, check how the state works, how it plans to implement this law on NPOs and agents. Without trying it, we couldn't judge how it works. We took the risk of testing it so that other NGOs could use our example to see what would happen and not be in danger.

The issue of appealing the decision of the Ministry of Justice will be decided after reading the response. In terms of consequences for our organization, this decision will not entail any consequences."

On July 13, 2012, the State Duma adopted a law on the inclusion of Russian non-profit organizations that receive funding from foreign sources and are engaged in political activities in a separate register of non-profit organizations performing the functions of foreign agents. On November 21, the law came into force. Most human rights organizations refused to register with this status.