Levada Center refused to sue the Ministry of Justice

“Levada-Center” changed his mind to apply to the court to challenge the decision of the Ministry of Justice to include the sociological service in the register of foreign agents. The director of the Levada Center, Lev Gudkov, told Kommersant about this.

“At the same time, the sociological service still does not recognize itself as a foreign agent, but it will legally prove anything only if the Ministry of Justice itself demands that through the court,” the newspaper emphasized.

The lawyers of the Levada Center established that the Law on Non-Profit Organizations allows us to apply this method of protection.

On September 5, the Ministry of Justice recognized the Levada Center by a foreign agent. The department noted that the fact of compliance with the sociological service by the signs of a non -profit organization performing the functions of a foreign agent was established during an unscheduled documentary audit.

The director of the Levada Center Lev Gudkov stated that the decision of the Ministry of Justice may be related to the implementation of a political order. He called the head of the Anti -Maidan Movement Dmitry Sablin, who wrote a “denunciation” for the organization, after which the checks were followed. Later, RBC found out that the reasons for the inclusion of the “Levada Center” in the register of foreign agents were, first of all, the critical statements of his leadership to the authorities.

The Ministry of Justice explained that a significant part of the foreign financing of the Levada Center came from the United States, which is why the organization was recognized as a foreign agent

The deputy head of the Kremlin administration Vyacheslav Volodin insisted that the decision to include the sociological service in the register of NGOs was not related to politics. He also reminded that Russian legislation allows us to protest the decision of the Ministry of Justice in court.