Foreign sugar agent

The Ministry of Justice of Russia included the "Foreign Agents" "Sakharovsky Center"

The Ministry of Justice of Russia has introduced three more regional public organizations, including the Sakharov Center , in the register of NPO - foreign agents, according to the website of the department. The “Public Commission for the Preservation of the Heritage of Academician Sakharov” was included in the register, since the fact of compliance with the signs of a non -profit organization performing the functions of a foreign agent was established during the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Russia in Moscow of an unscheduled documentary verification, ”the report said.

Also, the Kaliningrad Regional Public Organization "Human Rights Protection Center" and the Krasnodar Regional Public Organization of University graduates were included in the list.

Director of the Sakharov Center Sergey Lukashevsky told Radio Liberty that the final decision on whether the center was going to dispute the actions of the Ministry of Justice will be made on December 29, at the general meeting of members of the organization:

- The verification act says that, according to the Ministry of Justice, our organization is engaged in political activities. Our political activity is open free discussions and expert dialogs that we organize. The law on organizations acting as a foreign agent generally contradicts the basic foundations of rights and freedoms. But even from the point of view of this law, the decision on the Sakharov Center contradicts it. The Sakharov Center did not publish any reports, expert conclusions or applications for decisions of the authorities of the authorities.

- Now non -profit organizations in Russia are forced to act according to the logic of the law, which was adopted by the State Duma and approved by the President. Now you have to prove that you are not engaged in political activities. This is exactly what you focus on, but do not deny that you received foreign financing, foreign grants. ..

- We never denied this. This information is open. We always had to provide such information to the Ministry of Justice. We openly published sources of our financing on our website. In addition, it should be noted that, despite the objective increase in the amounts that the Russian state allocates to support non -profit organizations, this financing is arranged so that the organization similar to ours simply cannot exist at the expense of domestic grants. There is no full institutional financing. This is exclusively project financing. Therefore, we resorted to foreign financing. Firstly, to support our museum, exhibition hall, our premises. On the other hand, we believed that the task of an independent public organization is to have diversified sources of financing, which can be both Russian and foreign. We proceeded from the fact that the promotion of values that Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov defended could not be political activity.

We proceeded from the fact that the promotion of values that Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov defended, cannot be political activity

- Your story almost completely repeats the story with the Kostroma Center for the Support of Public Initiatives, one of the first NGOs to be recognized as a foreign agent. They appealed to the Constitutional Court, but in the end, the organization had to liquidate and even pay a fine. Is it possible that the Sakharov Center can also cease to exist?

- Yes, of course, I admit such an opportunity, because we do not know what the state reaction will be. Now there are many public organizations that are ready to be arbitrarily open, but are not ready to come to terms with the hung with this label. We do not know how the state will act. It is impossible to exclude anything. But we will certainly do something within the framework of the Russian legal system, ”says Sergey Lukashevsky.

The fate of the other oldest Russian human rights organization Memorial , already included by the Ministry of Justice in the list of foreign agents, has not been decided. On September 17, the Ministry of Justice went to court, demanding to close the "memorial", referring to numerous violations of the Law on NPOs. The Supreme Court postponed the lawsuit on a lawsuit on January 28, 2015.

At the end of November, the Memorial was supported by the Secretary of General of the Council of Europe, Turbyern Jagund, who visited Moscow. At a meeting with the employees of the Moscow Office of the organization, he called the "memorial" "a wonderful human rights organization", and its creator Andrei Sakharov - "outstanding European." Turgern Jagland highly appreciated the activities of Russian human rights activists, noting that they "not only retain the history of Russia," but also engage in "protecting the rights of an individual and building a rule of law."

On December 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with representatives of the Human Rights Council, at which he was asked questions about pressure on human rights organizations. Vladimir Putin noted that "there should be no pressure on the organization, and that the law on NPOs" "should be corrected", but how exactly, he did not specify.

In early December, the Ministry of Justice of Russia opened another case against the non -profit organization "Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedom" in connection with the non -provision of information on the performance of the functions of a "foreign agent". Earlier, the organizations of the Voice and Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg became the defendants in such cases. The Mosgorsud recognized its introduction to the list of “foreign agents” to the list of “foreign agents” - the Moscow City Court recognized the introduction of this organization to the register of the Ministry of Justice. The Law on NPOs , which complicated the life of many public and human rights organizations in Russia, was adopted in July 2012 and entered into force in November. He obliges NPOs financed from abroad to register as "foreign agents". Since the beginning of this year, the right to register an organization in the register has been transferred to the Ministry of Justice. Human rights activists demand to remove the “Foreign Agent” label from them, but the department says that such a procedure is not provided for in the law.