On 23 November the Russian State Duma, in spite of the numerous international protests, passed, in the first reading, the project of the federal law # 233364-4 “About the alteration of some legislative acts of the Russian Federation” which is directed at establishing control over NGOs and ending of existence of independent civil society in the Russian Federation. Vladimir Putin had a meeting with the chairwoman of the Council of the Assistance of the Development of the Institutes of the Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, who supported the NGOs and advocated scrapping the Bill. (20-DEC-2005)

International Appeal
The NGO bill has produced an immediate negative reaction from the international community. Practically all well-known NGOs and state governments addressed their points to the Russian State Duma and Vladimir Putin to repeal the NGO bill:

Reaction

According to Mrs. Pamfilova this bill is unacceptable. It violates the Russian Constitution’s norms and Russian obligations in the sphere of international law. In its present form the bill will seriously complicate the activity of the numerous NGOs and will hurt international cooperation, particularly with compatriots in the Former Soviet Republics.

Lukin V.According to the Ombudsman for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Lukin, the concept of the NGOs bill contains limitations on human rights and is directed towards the restriction of the right of everybody to association which is guarantied by the Russian Constitution and is secured in federal legislation. In this instance the Russian Federation will break its international obligations.

On 9 December, after all these criticism, Mr. Putin sent his thoughts about this project to the State Duma where he underlined that as a whole he approved this project, but he pointed out serious disadvantages.

The Recommendations of Vladimir Putin

The President offered to repeal that part of the bill which required the re-registration of all NGOs including foreign organizations. Regarding the last group, Vladimir Putin suggested introducing the procedure of notifying the commissioner of the Federal Agency of executive power. The President noted that in this bill, regulations which exclude superfluous intervention of this Agency in the lawful activity of international organizations should be provided.

Vladimir Putin considers that the procedure for the registration of foreign NGOs, especially in its legal and organizational form, as a social organization, is not possible, inasmuch, as many similar foreign associations can’t exist in that form because it is contrary to the legislation of foreign states.

In Mr. Putin’s opinion, perfecting the control over the activity of NGOs is necessary in the field concerning international and foreign NGOs intervening in the internal policy of the Russian Federation, and fighting terrorism.

The Regulations for the Foreign NGOs

The question about the opportunity of foreign citizens to be a NGO fonder or be an employee of NGOs has not yet been solved. The opportunity for foreign citizens and persons who are not residents, to create social unions and NGOs, to work in these organizations, will be seriously limited.

The Comments of Russian NGO Defenders

In spite of Putin’s criticism, he approved of the NGO Bill. Russian NGOs have established that, regardless of several changes in favor of NGOs, the direction of the NGO bill has moved towards toughening state control over NGO activity.

Ella Pamfilova confirms that the bill will make the mechanism of NGO registration tougher in comparison with the more liberal mechanism of the registration of commercial organizations.

As a result of these innovations the activity of many NGOs will be paralyzed and a lot of them will disappear because they don’t have enough financial resources to pass additional bureaucratic procedures.

Financial Control

In accordance with the Bill juridical and natural persons who will receive financial assistance from international and foreign organizations and foreign persons should inform a special Agency. Yuriy Djibladze, the president of the Center of Developing Democracy and human rights thinks that the bill will give the authorities the right to interfere in the financial activities of NGOs. Russian NGOs will be obligated to persuade the authorities of the practicality of the NGOs activity and reasonableness of the financial cost of their projects.

What does it mean an “inadmissible political activity”?

According to Mr. Djibladze it’s very dangerous that in the law project all definitions are vague. There is no definition of inadmissible “political activity” which Russian NGOs shouldn’t carry out with foreign money. It gives wide credentials for the control and limitation of the NGOs activity to the authorities, who can interpret the “inadmissible political activity” at their own discretion. Also important, and just as dangerous, is that in the proposed law the government has the power to close down any NGO without legal consent.

Mr. Putin said that it’s very important to keep a look-out for political organizations who receive money from abroad because they are used as an instrument of foreign policy of foreign states. The executive director of “Memorial”, Tatiana Kasatkina thinks that this law project is directed not only against political organizations but against the entire Russian NGO society, including organizations that help refugees, disabled people and poor people.

amnesty_logoNikola Dakvort, the director of the Department of Europe and Central Asia of Amnesty International contended that if the authorities had reason to refuse registering NGOs in being guided by too vague definitions, there would be a serious risk that permission for the opening or closing of an organization will be politically motivated.

Protest Actions

On the Human Rights Network Website an appeal against the NGOs bill was posted, which gathered more then five thousand signatures. The Human Rights Network also organized a special webpage about the NGO bill, where they have collected all documents, comments and interviews relative to the Bill.

On 19 of December 2005, on the eve of the Second listening of the bill in the State Duma, Russian NGOs led a protest in the streets of the major regional cities.