Doctors' Alliance added to the list of foreign agents

The Doctors' Alliance trade union was added to the list of foreign agents. Interfax reports this with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Justice.

A department spokesman said that the Doctors' Alliance "repeatedly received foreign funding and also engaged in political activities."

March 4 11:50 The head of the international human rights group "Agora" Pavel Chikov indicated that the "Alliance of Doctors" had not received notifications about the inclusion of the organization in the register of foreign agents. There is also no information on the recognition of the movement as a foreign agent in the relevant register and on the website of the Ministry of Justice.

5 March 11:55 “Alliance of Doctors” appeared on the list of “foreign agents” of the Ministry of Justice.

The organization was recognized as a “foreign agent” due to donations from Singapore, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Norway, Belarus and Ukraine. Among the types of political activities for which the Doctors' Alliance was recognized as a "foreign agent" is "participation in the organization and conduct of rallies, participation in activities aimed at obtaining a certain result in elections, dissemination of opinions about decisions taken by government bodies and carried out by them politics and the formation of socio-political views and beliefs.”

• “The Doctors Alliance trade union defends the rights of medical workers throughout the country. Together we are fighting for fair wages, decent working conditions, high bonuses and paid overtime for all Russian doctors,” they write on the organization’s website.
• Trade union members have repeatedly faced pressure from the authorities. Thus, in November 2020, police in Vologda detained members of the Alliance of Doctors Tamerlan Gurmaev and Ekaterina Martysheva, as well as the leader of the trade union Anastasia Vasilyeva. Members of the organization tried to donate personal protective equipment to the Vologda maternity hospital.
• In the summer of 2012, President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 121, which provided for mandatory registration as “foreign agents” for non-governmental organizations that receive funding from foreign sources and engage in “political activities.” A public organization (NPO) recognized as a “foreign agent” is subject to a number of special requirements. Among them is an indication in the materials distributed by the NPO that it “performs the functions of a foreign agent” and additional reporting.
• The head of the Doctors' Alliance, Anastasia Vasilyeva, is being charged in a case of violating sanitary and epidemiological rules at a rally in support of Alexei Navalny on January 23. In relation to her, the court chose a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions.