Russia raids human rights groups in crackdown on 'foreign agents'

[pampango]

Source: UK Guardian

Germany and France summoned Russian diplomats in Berlin and Paris on Wednesday, after Russia launched a series of raids on international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the country amid a wider crackdown on critics of the Kremlin.

The sweeps, billed as an attempt to weed out "foreign agents", targeted human rights organisations, environmental advocates, women's groups, non-Orthodox churches, charities and at least one French language school. Among the sites raided were the Moscow offices of the rights groups Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Transparency International.

"This is the planned destruction of the NGO sector in Russia," said Lev Ponomarev, head of For Human Rights, a Russian group that was targeted on Monday. "It's a war on NGOs and the strengthening of the authoritarian police state."

The sweep comes eight months after Vladimir Putin, the president, signed a widely criticised law demanding that NGOs which receive funding from abroad label themselves as "foreign agents". Critics said the law was reminiscent of Soviet-era efforts to demonise foreigners and those "collaborating" with them.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/27/russia-raids-human-rights-crackdown

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Vladimir Putin's crackdown on NGOs is return to rule by fear

The unprecedented sweep of civil society groups in Russia shows that Vladimir Putin has shifted to ruling openly by the politics of fear. The powerful president has yet to recover from the protests that swept Russia around his return to the Kremlin last year. Protesters have been arrested, organisers charged, Pussy Riot jailed, and now non-governmental organisations targeted as potential agents of the west.

The sweeps were conducted under a controversial law adopted last year, requiring all NGOs who receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents". In Russian, the term conjures images of Soviet-era propaganda beseeching citizens to avoid contact with all foreigners. The idea that all foreigners are spies has once again been revived. It began when Putin blamed the protests on Russia's traditional external enemy, the United States.

To many, the raids – in which officials from the prosecutor's office, tax inspectorate and ministry of justice combed through registration and financial documents – came as a surprise. Inside Russia's human rights community it was expected, after Putin suddenly recalled the law during a meeting with officers from his feared security services last month. "It was a classic signal," said Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch, whose Moscow office was raided on Wednesday.

The current checks have come as a warning, many in Russia's human rights community said. Down the line, refusal to register under the law could lead closures, fines, and a two-year jail sentence. What worries many more are the laws waiting in the wings, particularly a new law signed by Putin late last year that vastly expands the definition of treason to include any Russian believed to pass state secrets to any foreign organisation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/27/vladimir-putin-crackdown-ngo-russia

Sounds like Putin is returning to his roots.

[David__77]

1. Is this different than the US Smith Act?

It sure strikes me as McCarthyite, the Russian law I mean. I'm trying to put it into context. So the NGOs can function regardless of their funding source, but they must register as foreign agents?

[pampango]

2. Apparently being labeled a "foreign agent" scares and is resisted by many in the human rights

community in Russia. They seem to feel that label opens them up to bad things happening in Putin's Russia.

The sweeps were conducted under a controversial law adopted last year, requiring all NGOs who receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents". In Russian, the term conjures images of Soviet-era propaganda beseeching citizens to avoid contact with all foreigners. The idea that all foreigners are spies has once again been revived. It began when Putin blamed the protests on Russia's traditional external enemy, the United States.

To many, the raids – in which officials from the prosecutor's office, tax inspectorate and ministry of justice combed through registration and financial documents – came as a surprise. Inside Russia's human rights community it was expected, after Putin suddenly recalled the law during a meeting with officers from his feared security services last month. "It was a classic signal," said Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch, whose Moscow office was raided on Wednesday.

You are right in that the NGO's can continue to operate as long as they register as 'foreign agents'. I think the 'human rights organisations, environmental advocates, women's groups, non-Orthodox churches and gay-rights organizations' are more fearful of what the government does next once they are registered as 'foreign agents'.

"This is the planned destruction of the NGO sector in Russia," said Lev Ponomarev, head of For Human Rights, a Russian group that was targeted on Monday. "It's a war on NGOs and the strengthening of the authoritarian police state."

[reorg]

3. why is the Guardian using the false label "non-governmental organisations"

for the two German organisations whose offices were raided, I wonder?

Neither the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) nor the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) are NGOs, they are institutions of the two main political parties CDU and SPD, financed by the German tax payer.

KAS was also kicked out of Egypt recently and they provided support to the Venezuelan opposition, the party of Capriles. These foundations are tools of the political parties running them, it's not a secret, and they have offices all over the world where they support their political allies. Of course they are "foreign agents", that's just a statement of fact.

[pampango]

4. Thanks for the information. It will be interesting to see if the government restricts the 'foreign

agent' label and possible expulsion from the country to those two organizations and others that have overtly political motives.