“Give people the opportunity to work freely.” Putin again ordered the analysis of laws on non-profit non-profit agents

Russian President Vladimir Putin re-instructed to analyze the adopted laws on non-profit non-profit agents so that they do not interfere with organizations’ work. He stated this during a meeting with representatives of the Human Rights Council (HRC).

“Our people are honest and kind, they organize their work correctly, but those who pay them, as a rule, are guided by other goals - not strengthening Russia, but deterrence, this is the whole essence of the problem,” Putin said.

The head of state added that he would try to protect Russia’s internal interests and policies from interference, but at the same time it was necessary to “give people the opportunity to work freely and not look around.” Putin instructed the deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, to analyze the application of the law.

Since 2012, NGOs that receive money from abroad and engage in political activities must have the status of a foreign agent.

Putin has already ordered an analysis of the application of the law on non-profit non-profit agents in 2016. Then the president's attention was drawn to the inclusion of some environmental organizations in the list of foreign agents.

At the end of November, 50 Russian non-profit organizations contacted the office of the UN High Commissioner because a new bill on expanding the concept of “foreign agent” had been introduced into the State Duma of the Russian Federation. According to the authors of the appeal, such a law will further restrict the freedom of independent NGOs in Russia and stigmatize their activities.

The bill expands the concept of “foreign sources”, prohibits the registration of structural units of foreign NPOs in residential premises and introduces additional grounds for unscheduled inspections.

The document also obliges non-agent NPOs and divisions of foreign NPOs to send action programs and a report on their implementation to the Ministry of Justice.

There are currently 68 organizations in the register of NPO-inagents, but over the years the law has been in effect, many more NPOs have been included in it. A non-profit organization can challenge the status of an inagent through the courts, but not a single NPO has yet managed to achieve this. Human rights activists told Taki Dela about how their lives have changed since the law on foreign agents was in place.