How the State Duma is going to punish for assisting foreign agents and foreign NGOs

By the end of the week, members of the State Duma commission on foreign interference in the internal affairs of Russia will submit to the lower house a bill that will impose additional restrictions on foreign agents – in receiving not only financial, but also any other state property support, its chairman Vasily Piskarev said after the meeting of the commission.

Previously Piskarev informed in his Telegram channel about the preparation of new amendments to the legislation on foreign agents: on the prohibition of foreign agents to receive property support from the state and on new fines in the Code of Administrative Offenses for failure to comply with the Ministry of Justice’s order to eliminate violations of the law by foreign agents. The draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses were supported last week by the government commission on legislative activities.

According to Piskarev, the Duma commission proposed amending the law on foreign agents “because there are gaps that have arisen in the course of law enforcement.” “Legal and natural persons interact with foreign agents. If these citizens assist foreign agents in circumventing the laws, then in fact these restrictions lose their force, ”Piskarev emphasized.

Members of the commission propose amendments that provide for the implementation of the requirements of the “law on foreign agents” for all citizens. The competence of the Ministry of Justice to control “the activities of not only those who are foreign agents, but also those who assist them in exercising their powers” is expanding.

In case of introduction of innovations in the law “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence”, foreign agents will be prohibited from receiving property support from the state. “Now they have no right to receive only financial support from our state. And these are different types of support,” Piskarev noted in the Telegram channel. According to him, if “someone, through their actions or inaction, contributes to the violation of Russian legislation by a foreign agent,” the Ministry of Justice will be able to issue a warning to him indicating the violation committed and the period for its elimination, which is at least a month.

The second package of amendments considered by the commission concerns the activities of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs). According to Piskarev, 23 organizations deemed undesirable in Russia had no registration in the country.

“As soon as foreign NGOs start circumventing laws, refusing to register, we understand that they begin to act in the shadows, circumvent laws and perform tasks that are not part of their main goals,” the deputy said after the commission meeting. According to him, legitimate interaction with foreign NGOs “begins from the moment they are registered,” before that, any interaction with foreign NGOs is illegal.

The Commission proposes to amend the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Offenses, providing for punishment for interaction with NGOs that are not registered in Russia. Such organizations are trying to influence the internal politics of Russia from abroad, and the amendments will allow him to be excluded, Piskarev emphasized. What kind of punishment may threaten for such interaction, he did not specify.

According to the head of the commission, the deputies asked for time to study both packages of bills. “I think by the end of the week we will have to complete them and submit them,” Piskarev said.

There is still no legislative certainty as to what it means to be under foreign influence, Vadim Klyuvgant, a partner at the Pen & Paper Bar Association, told Vedomosti. “Another thing is also unclear: why this very “being under the influence” is identified with attempts to “circumvent our laws”. It is not explained with the help of what detective mechanisms the justice authorities will identify those who “by their actions or inaction contribute to the violation of Russian legislation by a foreign agent, how this “complicity” will be proved (especially through inaction),” he stressed.

Now there is no responsibility for interacting with foreign agents – you can work with them, transfer and receive money, says Vladimir Voronin, partner at Altavista Law Firm. “But the next step may well be administrative liability for financial relations with foreign agents or the risk of being included in the list of persons affiliated with them,” he says.

After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Russian parliamentarians began to regularly propose banning amendments to the law on foreign agents. At the end of April 2022, the Piskarev Commission proposed to recognize as foreign agents those who do not receive foreign funding, as well as commercial companies, if their activities are recognized as political. On July 14, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the relevant law.