Agents under the Constitution

The Constitutional Court of Russia on March 6 will begin the study of the Law "On Foreign Agents" for compliance with the main law of the country

On March 6, the Constitutional Court of Russia will begin to consider a comprehensive complaint of several NPOs against the law on the so -called "foreign agents". The applicants were supported by the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Vladimir Lukin. One of the first victims of the law was the Kostroma Center for Support for Public Initiatives, the chairman of the board of which requires if not cancel, then apply this law in relation to public organizations in political parties.

The first to a Constitutional Court with a complaint about the Law "On Foreign Agents" was appealed by the Kostroma Center for the Support of Public Initiatives, it was joined by the Institute for the Development of the Press from Novosibirsk, the Regional Samara Organization "Voice" and the Muravyovsky Park in the Amur Region. The appeal was supported at that time by the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Vladimir Lukin (his powers were expired in February this year), and the leaders of several more organizations turned to Lukin in turn: the Ulukitkan ecological club, the Voice association and the International LGBT Festival "BOC ON BOK".

Human rights activists are confident that the law "On foreign agents" contradicts the main provisions of the Constitution, violates freedom of speech and freedom of public associations, belittles human dignity and allows discrimination

All of the listed organizations were recognized as “foreign agents” and were either fined for the reluctance to get into the appropriate register for the amount of 100 to 300 thousand rubles, or they made the submission of prosecutors under the new law “On Foreign Agents”.

Scandalous amendments to the Law on NPOs were adopted in November 2012. According to the new rules, any NPO who is engaged in political activities and at the same time receiving funding from abroad is obliged to register in the register of the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent. NPOs was unanimously boycotted, after which in the spring of 2013 the prosecutor's office began massive inspections of organizations throughout Russia. Who exactly was checked and who, as a result, was recognized as a “foreign agent”, you can see on a specially created card of inspections of NGOs.

In practice, I was faced with the fact that in the courts it was just a funny thing: they discussed which expense dictionary of the Russian language to use in one case or another

“The law directly violates the principle of legal certainty,” says Ramil Akhmetgaliev , the lawyer of the Agora Association, representing the interests of the applicants in the Constitutional Court, “the norms of the law should be clearly defined for everyone. This is not observed in this law. What is“ political activity ”, the law does not determine. In practice, I came across the case simply to the ridiculous: discussed which explanatory dictionary was discussed. The term “money” is also not defined in one case or another - what is this financing for a certain service or is it a private donation, which is a migrant in it - will it be a foreign financing - or not? ”

Human rights activists are confident that the law "On foreign agents" contradicts the main provisions of the Constitution, violates freedom of speech and freedom of public associations, deterses human dignity and allows discrimination. In addition, organizations must be attributed to the “Foreign Agent” label, which is perceived negatively in society.

Neither the Ministry of Justice of Russia, nor the General Prosecutor's Office agree with human rights activists.

The official response to the Constitutional Court from the Deputy Ministry of Justice of Alexander Smirnov states that "the obligation of non -profit organizations whose activities are influenced by the state policy of the Russian Federation, to inform the state and the company on the presence of foreign financing and the purpose of it, it correlates with the provisions of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, guaranteeing everyone the right to freely search, transmit and spread information in any legitimate method. According to it in any legitimate method. According to it in any legitimate way. The data available to the Ministry of Justice, the total volume of foreign transactions to Russian non -profit organizations in November 2012 amounted to more than 20 billion rubles.

And the Deputy Prosecutor General of Sabir Kehlerov does not see anything bad in the term “foreign agent”, this term “is widely used in the current legislation, for example, an agent is a party to an agent agreement, a financial agent, a tax agent, an insurance agent, an agent of foreign currency control. Thus, the term“ agent ”cannot be considered as a deviation from the provisions of Part 1 of Article 21 guaranteeing the protection of personality dignity. "

“Foreign Agent” is the first thing that comes to mind that this is a spy, ”lawyer Ramil Akhmetgaliev replies to this. - People see black, and they are told that this is white. The terms "insurance agent" or "agency agreement", indeed, in the Civil Code there are. But if you mean by this law an agent - a person who acts on behalf of another organization or in its interests, then you will prove that it was this organization on behalf of. In the non -profit sector, such examples are unknown to me. As for "political activity" - there is also a lot of incomprehensible. For example, in the same law "On foreign agents", the rule of exception is spelled out, that is, a clear formulation, what kind of activity is not political. And environmental activity is clearly assigned to it. The Muravyovsky Park was recognized as a “foreign agent” on the basis of his environmental activity: his petition to stop hunting for rare representatives of the animal world, collecting signatures under the petition, and recognized as political activity. The law is written in such a way that even the courts cannot figure it out. "

Due to vague formulations in the law and free interpretations, any non-profit organization can be persecuted, Nikolai Sorokin is sure, the chairman of the Board of the Kostroma Center for Support for Public Initiatives: "In its current form, this law is extremely repressive and is used thanks to its very blurry formulations as a tool of the struggle with any objectionable local authorities."

The date of consideration of the case was not set for a long time, and only after the applicants complained about the delay in the terms of consideration, the Constitutional Court announced the date of the meeting in this case - March 6, 2014. The head of the Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, will be chairing the trial.

Due to vague formulations in the law and free interpretations, any non-profit organization can be persecuted

“Unfortunately, in our country it is very difficult to predict the results of the judicial consideration of certain cases related to the public sector, because there can be a lot of subjective factors, nevertheless we hope that nevertheless the consideration will be objective,” says Nikolai Sorokin . “I carefully studied materials, consulted with lawyers, and, in my opinion, we sent several kilograms of documents to St. Petersburg, and all this is enough The law on foreign agents disrupts the constitutional rights of citizens, and there are already examples of how this law is actually used as a repressive mechanism, there are a number of affected organizations, and in our materials we hope that the judges of the Constitutional Court, and among them there are very well -known professional lawyers, will study this situation, and will consider the world's practice and accept the world's practice and accept the world The corresponding decision that this law needs a very serious adjustment and revision. "

I must say that not all human rights defenders supported the decision of the Kostroma center to appeal precisely to the Constitutional Court of Russia. The fact is that another group of NGOs, which were also recognized by the courts by "foreign agents", wrote a collective complaint against this law immediately to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Among the applicants are organizations such as the Human Rights Center "Memorial", "Public Verdict", the Voice Association and others. In their opinion, the appeal to the Constitutional Court will slow down the process of considering their case, aimed at the ECHR.

"Our colleagues from the Voilk Association immediately decided to appeal to the European court and not waste time on Russian courts, and we considered that if there is an organization that disputes this law in the European Court, then it makes no sense to duplicate, so we went on a different path and appealed to the Constitutional Court, - Nikolai Sorokin explains our position from the Kostroma Support Center. - in our opinion, it was quite logical. We were quite logical. We believe that it is necessary to use all the tools, all the mechanisms that Russian national legislation gives to protect the rights of citizens. "

In parallel with the appeal to the European and constitutional courts, the organizations continue to appeal the decision to recognize them with "foreign agents" in Russian general Federal courts. And although the case in the ECHR was really paused before the verdict was issued by the Constitutional Court, but the lawyers representing the interests of the injured organizations managed to turn both of these events in their favor:

As a result, court cases for those NPOs that continue to fight in Russian courts, in particular, in the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow, were postponed to April 16. That is, the court agreed to wait for the verdict of the Constitutional Court. So, the decision on these cases will largely depend on what decision the CS of Russia will make.

We paid 100 thousand a fine for Alexander Zamaryanov, they were collected using the Internet, people donated money, and 300 thousand - a fine that was imposed on our organization - we have no opportunity to pay any way

"If the CS makes an objective decision and the law will be adjusted, then for us it will become an argument to return to the decision of the Kostroma court and begin to appeal it, to achieve the restoration of justice regarding our organization," Nikolai Sorokin hopes from the Kostroma Center for Support for Public Initiatives. "I will remind you that we paid 100 thousand fines for Alexander Zamaryanov, we collected them with the help of the Internet, people donated money, people donated money, people. and 300 thousand - which is imposed on our organization - we have no opportunity to pay, therefore, the bailiffs have already come to us in the fall, we have zero rubles on the account and there is no property that could be sold, and, unfortunately, there were no resources in order to find the corresponding money in the autumn. The 300,000th penalty was completely beyond its power, we literally announced that in this situation we created a new regional public organization, called the “Kostroma School of Public Policy”, which currently operates without the formation of a legal entity, so we cannot open the account, we cannot collect donations, but we can

We were forced to announce the beginning of the bankruptcy procedure of our organization

Organize events, round tables, seminars, and we all continue to do. Life continues, although, to be honest, it has become very complicated for us. ”

The main task and the main requirement of applicants is to recognize this law in full by the corresponding Constitution of Russia.

But if this does not work out, then you can adjust it, Nikolay Sorokin believes from the Kostroma center for the support of public initiatives and offers his own option:

- This is my personal opinion, the law can apply to those organizations that really engage in political activities. What is political activity in terms of common sense and all dictionaries? These are activities aimed at supporting a particular political party in the election candidates, participation in the campaign in favor of these candidates. We have public organizations in Russia that are engaged in political activities. For example, there is such an all -Russian public organization "Young Guard

There are public organizations in political parties. Not only youth, as in "United Russia", there are also female, as, for example, under the LDPR. And it will be logical if the restrictions that are superimposed on the political party will be superimposed on a public organization under this political party

United Russia ", she is engaged in the fact that she supports candidates from" United Russia ", advertises the United Russia party and is actually its instrument. There are youth organizations under other political parties that are positioned, that we are public organizations under such and such a party. It would be logical if such organizations had any restrictions. But in our country everything happens completely different, and organizations that are like" young Guard "work calmly, they work calm But human rights, environmental, educational organizations are subject to pressure.

- Do you know cases when and which youth organizations received foreign financing?

- I do not want to make such statements, I want to say about something else that there are public organizations in political parties. Not only youth, there are female, as, for example, under the LDPR. And it will be logical if the restrictions that are superimposed on the political party will, to one degree or another, are imposed on a public organization under this political party. He called himself with a load, climb into the body.