Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said that the group held a meeting with its regional partners and concluded that they did not intend to register as “foreign agents.”

She added that some organizations could alter this decision, but in that case the Moscow Helsinki Group “would not direct its anger at those who fell apart, but at those who were broken apart.” “Where is the Soviet government that tried to break us in the ’70s?” asked the former Soviet dissident. “And we’re still here. The repression is just tightening up.”

Golos director Lilia Shibanova said that her organization is prepared for the coming persecution and intends to argue the measure in court – up to the Constitutional Court, if necessary.

“We are organizing a public campaign in order to show people what our position is and what kind of work we do,” she said.

According to For Human Rights director Lev Ponomarev, it’s necessary to “warn all non-commercial organizations in Russia about the danger of registering under the new law.” He explained that following the new measures would entail having to turn down funding from international foundations, and that Russian businesses are “too frightened” to work with such organizations.

He also noted that even North Caucasian organizations, which are in a particularly difficult position since they are constricted by the federal government on one hand and radicals on the other, are refusing to register as agents.

“We need to remember that human rights organizations are a part of the protest movement and we need to stick clearly to this position,” Ponomarev said.

Valery Boshchev, a member of the Social Partnership Foundation, believes that the government’s actions towards human rights advocates constitute hysteria, and compared the “foreign agent” designation to the Nazi law requiring Jews to wear yellow stars. “We’re going to put banners up everywhere, announcing: ‘We aren’t swindlers or thieves, just foreign agents. We don’t take bribes and don’t steal money,'” said foundation director Igor Chestin.

The all-Russian small and medium business organization Opora Russia also intends to take on the new designation, but along with the intent of holding an information campaign to tilt public opinion in their favor.

The new NGO law was signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 21. The approximately one thousand organizations that would qualify as “foreign agents” mostly do work in the spheres of education, charity, and human rights. The label is designated for organizations that receive foreign funding and also “do political work” inside Russia, which is defined to include “influencing public opinion.”

A separate, additional measure was passed during its first reading in the Russian State Duma on September 11 to establish a one million ruble fine (about 32,350 USD) for agencies that refuse to properly register.

Experts have already noted numerous inconsistences and inaccuracies in the law and have asked for a number of terms to be more clearly defined. There is wide agreement that the measure is being used as an instrument of political repression.

Earlier this week, deputies from the United Russia party introduced a bill that would label non-governmental organizations that accept foreign funding as “foreign agents.” While the bill’s sponsors claim that the law is intended to inform the public of which organizations are purely Russian and which are financed from abroad, analysts and oppositionists are furious that it will effectively, as Mark Urnov put it, “allow people to discredit any organization that is not United Russia or that displeases the authorities.” The bill comes right on the heels of one that significantly increases fines for violating regulations on holding public protests, much to the chagrin of the recent wave of anti-government political activists.

Writing for Yezhednevny Zhurnal, journalist Anton Orekh delves into the blatantly illogical nature of the Kremlin’s newest project.

Enemies or Fools
By Anton Orekh
July 4, 2012
Yezhednevny Zhurnal

Now they’re in just as much of a hurry to pass a law concerning “foreign agents.” Just like they rushed to pass the new law on public protests, now they’re all in a flurry over this one. It will, of course, be passed. They’ll require us to take account more often, to take the label of “foreign agent.” They would love, of course, to add more labels as well. Like when during the war signs saying “provocateur” or “partisan” were stuck on people about to be hung, or six-pointed stars were sewn onto the shirts of Jews in the ghettos and camps. So that everyone knows that this non-profit organization employee is a “foreign agent.”

Naturally, they’re making references to the experiences of other countries. It’s characteristic of us to refer to other countries when we need to limit something or introduce insane fines or punishments. Never when there’s something positive to adopt. The creation of a system for the courts, or the parliament, or the army, or for science and education – there’s a great deal that’s good there. Nope, we’re just interested in the fines. Fines comparable to ones they have abroad – when we have incomparable salaries.

There’s only one way that our people interpret the phrase “foreign agent.” Spy! The agent of a foreign intelligence agency or something like that. Which is to say – an enemy. And in telling the public that your organization is a “foreign agent,” you, as the author of the law intended, are thus telling everyone that you are an enemy. An enemy of Russia.

A wave of awareness is now on the rise. People are saying, what’s the deal here, what is it you’re doing?! Because if this law is passed, even Putin’s favorite foundation Give Life and the less loved but universally known and “significant” Gorbachev Foundation would fall under the definition of “foreign agents.” And most importantly – the Russian Orthodox Church! It also fits the description of a “foreign agent!” A real horror, isn’t it?

Don’t you worry. The law will be passed all the same. But, just like all of our laws, it’s going to be interpreted loosely. It wasn’t written in order to interfere with our bureaucrat priests or Chulpan Khamatovа or Mikhail Gorbachev. Their institutions will get off, at the very worst, with a write-up. But most likely the government will just close its eyes. There’s no saying who under what circumstances will fall subject to which laws. Laws are instituted not in order to regulate our lives (but in normal countries normal laws are needed for just this reason), but in order to repress those the government deems to be undesirable, to make their lives harder, to put obstacles in their way, and to shove sticks in their tires. This is all done so that, if the need arises, they can apply rules that don’t even actually exist in the law. And that’s why Pussy Riot is locked up right now, for something that they didn’t actually do.

The intent of the authors of the law on “foreign agents” is something I can understand. What I don’t understand is another thing. Why are they hiding the enemies of the people? Why are they limiting themselves to taking half-measures? They’re giving the status of “spy” and “enemy of the state” to a huge swath of different offices. These are spy agencies that are financed from abroad. They are financed with a single goal: to undermine our system, to break Russia apart – and when Russia does break apart, to dismember her, occupy her, take control of her natural resources, and…it’s scary even to imagine what they want to do to our people. Right? And if that’s not right, then why are foreign governments setting up sabotage organizations on our territory?

So what do we have here? An entire network of hostile, subversive organizations are at work in Russia, but the state, instead of defusing them, is only requiring them to increase their financial paperwork and write up twice as many certificates. What kind of way is this to deal with our enemies? Instead of catching and punishing them, we’re going to make them hang tags on themselves and send them off into the world to keep on crapping all over it?!

I’ve had questions like this for a while. Remember what a whirlwind rose up after a group of oppositionists visited the American embassy. And it turned out that a visit to the American embassy was an incident of treason. So why is this embassy still functioning in general? If the very act of going there constitutes treason? Why do we still have relations with a country whose embassy carries out no functions besides radically extremist ones?

Forgive me, but I just don’t see any other logic. If a trip to the American embassy is treason, then it means that America is our enemy. Why should we have the embassy of an enemy in Moscow? If anyone who gets money from abroad is officially – officially! – considered to be a foreign agent, which is to say an enemy, then why aren’t these people in the Kolyma Gulag, and why aren’t their organizations closed down?

I believe my logic to be beyond reproach, and the authors of these laws are either the accomplices of our enemies or they’re simply fools. Here, there’s simply no other option.

Translation by theotherrussia.org.

On Tuesday, Interfax reported that criminal charges of slander had been filed against the head of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, Oleg Orlov, by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. The charges stem from comments by Orlov regarding connections between Kadyrov and last summer’s high-profile murder of Memorial activist Natalya Estemirova.

The Chechen president, who has been denounced by rights organizations worldwide for his alleged personal involvement in individual cases of murder, torture, and other rights abuses, won an earlier civil case against Orlov in which the Memorial director was forced to pay a fine. Kadyrov then promised to stop suing human rights activists after he was criticized by his mother for disrespecting his elders. With Tuesday’s announcement, that promise appears to have been broken. Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe reports on the Russian federal government’s misunderstanding of human rights organizations:

Well-known Russian rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina says the federal government is ignorant about the operations of human rights groups in the North Caucasus, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports.

Gannushkina, of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Civic Assistance Committee, was reacting to reports that a Moscow court has charged Oleg Orlov, the head of the rights group Memorial, with defamation of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

She told RFE/RL that “the dangerous part of human rights work comes from the local governments, not outside organizations.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in a meeting human rights activists on July 6 that he believes people need to be able “to send the government a signal” about the problems in the North Caucasus, often by going through NGOs.

But Putin warned that some NGOs in the North Caucasus are “supported by outside funds,” hinting that they are being financed by political organizations abroad.

Gannushkina said such an accusation is not new. She added that activists do not follow orders from anyone, though she admitted that most of the funding for NGOs comes from foreign and private companies.

Pyotr Gorbunenko, the Managing Director of WWF Russia, explained tо Gazeta.ru (RUS) that groups will now have to pay a steep tax on foreign funding given as grants.

“The profit tax in such cases in Russia is 24%,” he said. “Parent organizations will have to stop financing their Russian offices because they are not permitted to contribute to foreign countries’ budgets. Their grants come to Russia minus taxes, which are paid in the country of their parent companies’ registration.”

Representatives of the affected funds said the move may spark further attack against Western NGOs, an allegation denied by Putin’s press-secretary, Dmitry Peskov. NGOs in Russia say they are already hobbled by a 2005 law requiring onerous reporting and registration practices.

Some of the better-known groups affected by the decree include the Ford Foundation, the Charity Aid Foundation, the Eurasia Fund, the World Wildlife Fund, the Red Cross, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. It appears that the funds kept on the list have ties to the government and state structures.

The decree is set to take effect on January 1st, 2009. Peskov told Kommersant that “a timely overhaul of the list will allow organizations to take account of the novelties when planning their further work.”

Sodeystvie (Assistance), which was formed in the 1990s by a refugee family from Tajikistan, helped refugee families and forced migrants integrate into society. The non-profit also set up festivals for children’s dance ensembles around Russia. It was ordered to dissolve on February 4th, 2008, by a court in the Vladimir oblast, after charges of failing to report on its activities, and failing to disclose that its location had changed. The group was compliant with tax authorities, but did not register with the necessary federal agency.

Rights activists believe this to be a precedent case, which may impact future prosecutions as authorities step up the enforcement of a 2006 law on registering non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The law, which came to effect in October 2006, required each of Russia’s estimated 500,000 NGOs to first register with the Federal Registration Agency, then file yearly paperwork with detailed reporting on all aspects of their funding and activities. Groups with any foreign funding were required to file the most details, up to and including the cost of office supplies. Small organizations in particular were concerned over the burden that the law would put on their staff and resources. Groups that fail to file in time, or file incorrectly may be taken to court and closed by authorities.

A year and a half after the law went into effect, there are some 227,000 registered NGOs. According to the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta, only a quarter of those groups had filed correctly by this year’s April 15th deadline. A report by Human Rights Watch found that the law was having a stifling effect on Russia’s civil society, and noted that thousands of groups have been threatened and dissolved since the law went into effect. Authorities have recently pledged to step up enforcement.

Officials have argued that the new law provides necessary regulation for NGOs, and is no different from regulations in the West. Still, critics have maintained that the law is entirely too strict, and point to certain organizations that have been targeted repeatedly without explanation.

Valery Madyarov, who heads Sodeystvie, said that the decision of the court was unlawful. He plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Incidentally, Madyarov’s wife Nina also runs a non-profit organization, called the “Children’s Ballet Theater.” Prosecutors recently started an investigation into that group as well, it now faces court-ordered closure.