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Katherin Machalek, ‘‘Factsheet: Russia’s
NGO Laws in Contending With Putin’s Russia A Call for US. Leadership, at 10-13, Freedom House, Feb. 6, 2013; Russian Duma Passes Controversial NGO Bill
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Dec. 23, 2005.
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Ibid. This term connotes a different meaning than the Foreign Agents Registration Act in US. law, in which it is defined in part as any person who acts as an agent,
representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal or of a person any of whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised,
directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal and which, most significantly, does not constrain activities of the agent but merely requires registration. 22 U.S.C. § c. US.
Department of State,
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012: Russia, at
25. US. Department of State,
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016: Russia, at
2. Human Rights Watch, Russia Government vs. Rights Groups Sept. 8, 2017. cessors, Putin’s Kremlin has suppressed independent civil society and human rights activists through a variety of means, including legal restrictions and administrative burdens, the creation of gov- ernment-sponsored civil society groups to counter independent organizations, and violent attacks.
Russia’s restrictive legal framework for civil society was designed and refined over many years. In December 2005, the Duma passed amendments that increased scrutiny and bureaucratic reporting requirements
of NGO finances and operations, used vaguely defined provisions to prohibit foreign NGO programming, barred foreign nationals or those deemed undesirable from founding NGOs inside the country, and prohibited any NGO deemed a threat to Russian national interests.
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Surkov argued that the amendments were a needed defense against the specter of Western countries and organizations set on fomenting regime change in Russia. In 2012, after Putin’s reelection to the presidency, the Kremlin shepherded through new legislation that further tightened the operating climate for NGOs: any group receiving foreign funding and engaged in political activities had to self-report as a foreign agent’’—a So- viet-era term used to describe spies and traitors.
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Observers widely saw the foreign agent law as an attempt to stigmatize and deny funding to NGOs working on human rights and democracy.
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In May 2014, the law was amended to enable Russia’s Justice Ministry to directly register groups as foreign agents without their consent, and authorities have since expanded the definition of political activities to include possible aspects of NGO work and fined or closed organizations for violations of the law.
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Russia’s restrictive NGO laws have had a significant effect. Human Rights Watch reported in September 2017 that ‘‘Russia’s Justice Ministry has designated 158 groups as foreign agents courts have levied staggering fines on many groups for failing to comply with the law, and about 30 groups have shutdown rather than wear the foreign agent label.’’
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Other laws—relating
to extremism, anti-terrorism, libel, and public gatherings—have also been selectively utilized by Russian officials to repress independent
NGOs and human rights activists, among other targets. The hostile environment for domestic NGOs also fueled a blowback against foreign entities who sought to support them. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which for two decades had supported democracy and rule of law promotion in Russia, as well as health and education, announced in October 2012 that it
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Arshad
Mohammed, ‘‘USAID Mission In Russia To Close Following Moscow Decision
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