FBK recognized as a foreign agent

The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) of Alexei Navalny has been recognized as a foreign agent - today the Ministry of Justice entered it into the register of NPO-foreign agents . The department said that the fund received about 140 thousand rubles from organizations in the United States and Spain.

Details

• The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that "the fact that the organization complies with the characteristics of a non-profit organization performing the functions of a foreign agent was established in the course of the current control over its activities carried out by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Russia for Moscow."

UPD: The Ministry of Justice explained that "the fund's employees attempt to influence public authorities, take part and organize rallies and marches" when receiving foreign funding. Even if the rallies and marches are peaceful, but the organizers receive money from abroad, this is a reason to put them on the list of non-profit organizations-foreign agents, the department said. The website of the Ministry of Justice lists Star-Doors.Com from the United States and Roberto Fabio Monda Cardenas from Spain as sources of funding.

• The foundation has not received official notifications from the Ministry of Justice, FBK spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told The Bell.

Quote. “We have never received any foreign donations. This decision is an attempt to put pressure on the FBK, just like the alleged money laundering case,” Yarmysh said.

• Nothing will change in the work of the fund - as soon as the FBK receives a notification from the Ministry of Justice, it will begin to challenge this decision, FBK director Ivan Zhdanov told The Bell.
• The founder of the fund, Alexei Navalny, wrote on Twitter that the FBK was entered into the register "by direct order of Putin."

https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1181866852185772032?s=21&fbclid=IwAR1Yy14L9SJz3krGkHN06nA5340RgGaDJCs0ePjHyN9heqHxHWb9MIrH9Hk

Why is it important. The status of "foreign agent" was introduced in 2012 by amendments to the law "On NGOs". A foreign agent is an organization that is engaged in "political activities" on the territory of the Russian Federation and at the same time receives funding from foreign states, international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens and stateless persons. Now there are 71 organizations in the register of the Ministry of Justice.

The Levada Center, which received this status in 2016, indicated that it drastically hampered its work in terms of funding, contacts with government agencies and citizens. The Center emphasizes that for Russians "foreign agent" is almost synonymous with the concept of "spy".

What threatens the status of "foreign agent"?

• Foreign agents are prohibited from making any deals with Russian political parties. Also, NCOs - "foreign agents" are forbidden to participate in elections in any form: "to promote or hinder the nomination of candidates and their lists, election, as well as the achievement of certain results by them."
• They are also prohibited from taking the initiative to hold a referendum, as well as "in other forms to participate in election campaigns, referendum campaigns."
• It is also harder for foreign agents to become election observers (recall that in the presidential election of 2018, the FBK announced that 33,000 of its observers were deployed at polling stations throughout Russia).
• An organization in the status of a foreign agent must register with the Ministry of Justice and indicate information about being recognized as a foreign agent in all publications in the media and on the Internet.
• The annual financial statements of such organizations are subject to mandatory audit. NPOs recognized as agents are required to report to the Ministry of Justice once every six months on their activities and on the personal composition of the governing bodies. They must submit documents on the expenditure of funds quarterly.

The Association "Lawyers for Civil Society" also said: "NPOs that are recognized as foreign agents cannot provide "public benefit services"". This means that the FBK will not be able to claim to receive budget money to help children, the disabled, pensioners, as well as to provide information support for the prevention of "socially significant diseases" and "neglect and juvenile delinquency."

What about the elections? Despite the fact that non-agent organizations are forbidden to have anything to do with the Russian elections, FBK employees (Aleksey Navalny, Lyubov Sobol, Ivan Zhdanov) will continue to be able to run for elections, as they did before, as self-nominated candidates. There is no direct relationship between their place of work and suffrage, Roman Smirnov, president of the Association of Political Lawyers, explained to The Bell. But when publishing investigations during the election campaign, the fund may run into problems. “The fact is that the law “On Basic Guarantees” says that foreign agents cannot “facilitate or hinder the nomination of candidates and the achievement of certain results by them.” It is impossible to objectively determine what could contribute to the success or failure of the candidate, the criteria are not written anywhere. The concept of "pre-election campaigning" is also subjective - anything can fall under it. Accordingly, whether any post or FBK investigation violates the law when the election campaign is underway, law enforcement agencies will decide at their discretion,” Smirnov said.

Context. against the FBK In August, a case was also opened for “money laundering”: investigators of the Investigative Committee claim that from January 2016 to December 2018, FBK employees received “from third parties a large amount of money in rubles and foreign currency, which were knowingly acquired for them by criminal means” . For this, the fund's employees face up to 7 years in prison.