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The levada center will not be registered as a "foreign agent". “This is absolutely excluded,” the general director of the sociological center Lev Gudkov told the independent newspaper. Sociologists are now looking for ways to continue work, but so far Gudkov "does not want to reveal cards."

Gudkov does not agree that his organization conducts political activity. “The study of politics is not a policy itself, as the treatment of the disease is not the disease itself,” he emphasized.

"The authorities identify foreign financing with a conspiracy against national security and consider everything that is aimed at criticism of the current government, as is customary in authoritarian or totalitarian regimes," Gudkov said.

The law on "foreign agents" may be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights, Gudkov believes. "In the field of human rights protection, there is a priority of international law over national. And the Law on NPOs contradicts international law. The European court may require international sanctions," Gudkov said to Novaya Gazeta.

Earlier, in an interview with Izvestia, the head of the Levada Center expressed the opinion that the repression against sociologists "fit into the general trend of the Putin regime." Gudkov recalled that the other two leading sociological services - the public opinion fund and VTsIOM - work on orders of the presidential administration. According to him, the Levada Center "tells how it really is." “We show the Kremlin’s support fall, the percentage of delegation of the regime, the growth of dissatisfied, the growth of doubts that Putin is fighting corruption, and not tied to this. This fuel the nervousness of the authorities and makes such stupid acts,” Gudkov believes.

The application of the Law on Agents can lead to the mass closure of non -profit organizations. The Voice Association is working closely by the liquidation option of a legal entity. In an interview with the “Independent Newspaper”, the Executive Director of Voosa Lilia Shibanova emphasized that she would not obey the new requirements. “This is absolutely excluded - we can’t represent foreign interests,” Shibanova said. “Unfortunately, the law is arranged so that if we continue to persist, we will be imposed on the next many thousands of fines, and the pursuit of the leadership can develop from an administrative nature into a criminal one. As a result, the closure of the“ vote ”as a legal entity may turn out to be the only way out.”

In April, the magistrate court fined the Voice Association and Shibanov for 400 thousand rubles for "violation of the procedure for a non -profit organization performing the functions of a foreign agent." The association appealed this decision. The association can be closed immediately after the appeal, when the court decision comes into force.

On Monday, the Ministry of Justice opened an administrative case against the Russian public organization Voice, which is part of the association. As noted by the deputy Shibanova Grigory Melkonets, on April 26, the Moscow prosecutor’s office gave ROO “Voil” for a month to include “foreign agents” in the register. "The deadline for the reaction to the representation of the prosecutor’s office has not yet passed, and the state in the person of its other body - the Ministry of Justice - draws up a protocol on an administrative offense on the same basis, which contradicts common sense and deprives the public organization of the right to conscientious elimination of the identified violations," writes Melkonian.

The Voice emphasizes that in the case of inclusion in the register, the work of NPOs would still be paralyzed - the Law on Agents provides for constant unscheduled inspections.