In St. Petersburg, two courts made different decisions about the “foreign agency” of the Humanitarian Action Foundation

The Petrogradsky District Court in St. Petersburg ruled that the Humanitarian Action organization, recognized as an “NGO-foreign agent”, does not engage in “political activities”. Earlier, the Oktyabrsky District Court made the opposite decision, in response to the fund's attempt to challenge the status of a foreign agent. It is reported by "Kommersant".

The Humanitarian Action Charitable Foundation was recognized as an NGO as a “foreign agent” in December 2020. As writes Novaya Gazeta , the reason for inclusion in the register of NGOs-"foreign agents" was the receipt of foreign funding and the foundation's participation in "political activities". In particular, the Ministry of Justice saw “political activity” in an interview with the fund’s employee Alexei Lakhov for Novaya Gazeta about the work of the fund, which he gave on February 18, 2020.

“The anti-drug strategy until 2030 clearly states that substitution therapy can be forgotten in the next ten years,” Lakhov said in an interview with Novaya Gazeta. As writes Novaya Gazeta , his “words caused discontent among representatives of the Ministry of Justice. The act of an unscheduled inspection dated November 16 (available to the editors) states that in this way the foundation “influences state policy” on the issue of substitution therapy.”

In May of this year, the Ministry of Justice drew up a report on the foundation for violating the procedure for the activities of an NGO-“foreign agent” (Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) for the fact that the organization did not enter itself into the register of foreign agents on its own.

In the summer of 2021, the fund tried to challenge the status of a foreign agent, but the Oktyabrsky District Court upheld the decision.

On October 5, a meeting was held in the Petrogradsky District Court on violating the procedure for the activities of an NGO-“foreign agent”. The court did not find any elements of the offense in the protocol, since “the activities of the Humanitarian Action Charitable Foundation correspond to the goals stipulated by its founding documents.”

“The information specified in the protocol and the verification act does not reflect any data indicating the intentions of Humanitarian Action to participate in actions designed to influence the decisions made by state bodies and the state policy pursued by them, as well as the formation of public opinion not for the purposes of the charter activities,” Kommersant quoted the court’s decision.

The court also noted that "political objectives" should refer to the activities of the NPO itself, and not to individual employees. In its decision, the Ministry of Justice referred, among other things, to interviews and comments from the fund's employees. “The information specified in the protocol and the verification act does not reflect any data indicating the intentions of Humanitarian Action to participate in actions designed to influence the decisions made by state bodies and the state policy pursued by them, as well as the formation of public opinion not for the purposes of the charter activities,” the decision of the Petrogradsky District Court says.

Maxim Krupsky, representing the interests of Humanitarian Action in court, called the decision of the Petrogradsky court "precedent" and said that the defense plans to use the decision of the Petrogradsky district court to appeal the decision of the Oktyabrsky district court.

• The St. Petersburg Charitable Foundation "Humanitarian Action" helps HIV-positive people and people with drug addiction. The Foundation has been operating since 2001 and is one of the oldest foundations working with the HIV problem in Russia.

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