“Amendments of this type lead NGOs to a dead end.” Representatives of non-profit organizations criticized the legislation on foreign agents

During a discussion in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, representatives of non-profit organizations (NPOs) criticized amendments to the legislation on foreign agents, the press service of the RF OP reported .

On December 15, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill tightening the requirements for non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent. The head of the “Old Age in Joy” foundation, Elizaveta Oleskina, said that any participation of NPOs in working with authorities, including as members of public and trustee boards, can be interpreted as political activity.

“Amendments of this type lead NPOs to a dead end and hinder the development of the sector as a whole,” she said.

Director of the Social Information Agency Elena Topoleva-Soldunova noted that the list of foreign agents includes social organizations and charitable foundations. This happens because the concept of “political activity” is formulated too broadly. She proposed introducing the concept of “mediation”. Topoleva-Soldunova recalled that two years ago the Ministry of Justice proposed a new form of reporting for NPOs on foreign funds received by the organization through intermediaries.

“We still haven’t figured out how this can be done: commercial organizations are not obliged to disclose their sources of funding to us. And this directly relates to the proposed norm: we have already had the moratorium extended twice - this suggests that even the current provisions of the law do not work, they lack the sophistication of technology. Therefore, it seems to me that the bill should be postponed and finalized,” said Topoleva-Soldunova.

She listed the points on which non-profit non-profit agents are deprived of their rights: a ban on the performance of publicly useful services; impossibility of labeling media publications made many years ago. She highlighted errors in law enforcement practice when NPOs are included in the register of foreign agents by decision of the territorial branches of the Ministry of Justice and district courts. According to Topoleva-Soldunova, such decisions should only be made by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.