Levada Center became the object of a prosecutor's investigation. The Lente.ru organization confirmed that a representative of the prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, April 23, officially notified the director of the Levada Center, Lev Gudkov, about the upcoming inspection.

An employee of the organization, Natalya Zorkaya, published on her Facebook page a photo of the notice sent to Gudkov by the Savyolovsky Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office of Moscow. The document says that the organization will be checked “for compliance with current legislation.” The prosecutor's office demands from the Levada Center documents relating to various aspects of the organization's activities, including the fulfillment of obligations to foreign grantors.

Earlier, in February 2013, the Ministry of Justice received several hundred requests to check the activities of the Levada Center for foreign funding of this organization and recognize it as a “foreign agent.” The Ministry of Justice refused : this was explained by the fact that to begin an inspection of a non-profit organization, suspicions are required not only regarding the sources of funding, but also regarding the participation of this organization in extremist activities.

Along with the Levada Center, which is engaged in sociological and marketing research, in February the authorities did not initiate an audit of the Golos election observer association. However, later, in March, mass inspections of non-profit organizations began in Russia by employees of the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Justice and the tax inspectorate. As part of these checks, NPOs were identified that are engaged in political activities in Russia and receive funding from abroad, which means, in accordance with the law that came into force at the end of 2012, they should be called “foreign agents.” The first NGO accused of violating the law on “foreign agents” was the Golos association.

The prosecutor's office will check the Levada Center