Russian NGOs Decry 'Foreign Agent' Label

Russian NGOs on Tuesday vowed to appeal against being labelled as "foreign agents" under a law Western rights groups condemned as a "stranglehold" on freedom of expression.

The Russian justice ministry on Monday added five prominent non-governmental organizations to its register of "foreign agents," which requires them to mark all their paperwork accordingly and undergo stricter audits.

Russia in 2012 introduced a law requiring all organizations engaged in political activity with even a trickle of foreign funding to register as "foreign agents," a term with connotations of Cold War espionage.

Rights groups have battled ever since to avoid using the label.

The newly registered groups are Memorial, a Moscow-based human rights organization that works extensively with Soviet archives to chronicle repressions in the era; Ecodefense, an environmental group whose focus is nuclear power plants; and three legal advocacy groups: Agora, Public Verdict, and Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms.

The groups told Agence France Presse that they will not comply with the ministry's orders despite risking heavy penalties.

"We will appeal against (the ministry's) decision, but will continue to operate as before," said Yan Rachinsky, one of the founders of Memorial.

"There may be fines and difficulties arising from that."

Amnesty International called the justice ministry's decision a "further sign of the authorities’ growing stranglehold on freedom of expression".

Thirteen organizations have already filed complaints to the European Court of Human Rights over the law, which is seen as deliberately vague and designed to target specific groups the Kremlin considers oppositional.

In particular, the law defines any form of public campaigning as political activity, even when it is in non-political spheres like health and education.

The law had already pushed some groups to close and reformat their activities.

Golos, an organization that monitors elections and was instrumental during the 2011 parliamentary polls and 2012 presidential polls that led to Vladimir Putin's ascent to a third historic term, now defines itself as a "movement".

"We don't recognize the term 'foreign agent'," said Natalia Taubina of Public Verdict. "We are not agents."