MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said on Sunday the recent inspections of Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are aimed at establishing their compliance with the law, not at liquidating them.
“Our goal here is not liquidating or creating any obstacles to activity, but forcing these NGOs to unconditionally comply with the law that envisages transparency and acquiring a status of a foreign agent through being included in a relevant register,” Chaika said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Nationwide NGO inspections have been taking place in Russia since March. Many observers have linked them to a new law which tightens control on NGOs and obliges those that receive foreign funding to register as “foreign agents.” The law, requiring NGOs financed from abroad and involved in political activity to register as foreign agents, came into force in Russia in November 2012.
The prosecutor general said earlier in April the organizations that receive funding from abroad are not banned from working in Russia, but they should openly declare their sources of income.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that over 650 Russian NGOs had received 28.3 billion rubles ($903 million) in foreign funding since the NGO law was adopted in Russia.
