MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of a controversial political party in Russia said Tuesday that about 10 Russian non-governmental organizations could be put on a black list for collaboration with foreign intelligence agencies.
After a closed session of the lower chamber of parliament, Dmitry Rogozin, who heads the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) party, said his faction was considering a proposal to send the results of an investigation into NGOs that were suspected of receiving financing from foreign intelligence agents to prosecutors.
"We will insist on sending documents on the NGO black list to the Prosecutor General's Office," he said, but added that punitive measures should not be aimed at all NGOs.
Rogozin's announcement came in the wake of a spy scandal centering on British intelligence and some NGOs operating in Russia. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday it had identified four British agents working in Moscow under diplomatic cover and seized a high-tech British spying device used to contact agents.
The FSB said that one of the men, 27-year-old Marc Doe, had signed off documents allocating thousands of pounds in financing to non-governmental organizations working in Russia.
"We must explain to the Russian and the international community that unfair methods are being used against us," Rogozin said.
The activity of NGOs receiving funding from overseas has raised concerns in Russia following the role similar groups were said to have played in "revolutions" in other former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine and Georgia, that brought new authorities to power.
However, the head of the chamber's regulatory committee, Oleg Kovalyov from the centrist United Russia faction, said that NGOs "had the right to exist, but should be transparent for the society."
He also said the spy scandal confirmed the need for a new law on NGOs introducing stricter control over these organizations, which was recently passed by the lower house.
