MPs may allow authorities to work with unregistered foreign NGOs

This week, the Federation Council will consider a law on compulsory registration of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the Ministry of Justice. In parallel, the State Duma intends to consider amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code, which provide for liability for Russians for participating in the work of NGOs that have not registered their branches in the Russian Federation. Initially, the rigid draft of the basic law for the second reading in the State Duma was somewhat softened – foreign NGOs were allowed to participate in events held by state structures without registration. The expert believes that the amendments are motivated by the desire of the authorities to preserve space for political maneuver.

As previously pointed out by Kommersant, amendments to the law “On non-profit organizations” were introduced in April by deputies of the inter-factional commission to investigate the facts of foreign interference in the internal affairs of Russia. In the explanatory note, the authors pointed out that although there is a regulated procedure for registering foreign NGOs in the legislation, this does not exclude their work “both on their own and with the involvement of individuals or legal entities” in circumvention of existing norms. “Foreign NGOs, working to undermine the constitutional and economic foundations of our country without registration and representation, thereby try to elude the attention of regulatory authorities so as not to report on their actions, on their funding,” said one of the authors of the bill, deputy Sergei Leonov (LDPR). In this regard, the deputies proposed to allow only foreign NGOs that have registered their subdivisions with the Russian Ministry of Justice to work.

Compliance with the norm should be ensured by the accompanying novelties in the Administrative Code (CAO) and the Criminal Code (CC), which provide for liability for Russians who participated in the activities of gray NGOs: up to 5 thousand rubles. (for citizens) and up to 100 thousand rubles. (for legal entities) for the first and second such violation (under the Code of Administrative Offenses), up to two years in prison – for subsequent ones (under the Criminal Code). In addition, the authors proposed criminal penalties – up to three years in prison – for organizing the work of foreign NGOs without registration.

The bills passed the first reading not without discussion – the Communist Party refused to support the innovations in the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code, citing, among other things, the vagueness of the wording “participation in activities.” “If you work with a salary in such an organization, then it will be participation. And if a citizen drives an NGO employee to work in his car, he also participates, will we also hold him accountable?” – the communist Yury Sinelshchikov was perplexed. The inaccuracy of the term was also brought to the attention of the government in an official opinion.

The deputies from the civil society committee prepared the basic bill for the second reading. They supplemented the document with a significant exception that allowed unregistered NGOs to “participate in events” in the Russian Federation at the invitation of state (or municipal) bodies, public law, state companies and state funds, public associations, organizations controlled by state bodies, as well as organizations created on the basis of the Federal Law, acts of the president or government.

One of the authors of the amendment was a member of the profile committee, an experienced public figure (coordinator of the public movement “Liza Alert” and a member of the “All-Russian People’s Front”) Oleg Leonov (“New People”). “This is my own position,” Mr. Leonov said. “There were no official appeals from NGOs, there were conversations at the level of representatives of various organizations.” The committee, according to the parliamentarian, traditionally works on the bills received jointly: “If my amendments, I suggest that my colleagues join, if my colleagues have amendments, we discuss this and invite each other to participate in the work,” the deputy added. In the end, almost all of his colleagues on the committee agreed with Mr. Leonov’s proposal.

The authors of the first version of the draft law, according to Mr. Leonov, took the changes without skepticism. “We were aware of the work, were interested in the passage of the law, we were also invited to the committee meeting – everything suited us,” Deputy Andrei Alshevsky (ER) confirmed to Kommersant. “There were no such amendments that would change the concept.” According to Mr. Alshevsky, the drafters of the law will continue to monitor their novelties in law enforcement practice: “When the law comes into force, we monitor it and track the practice of application: we consult, communicate with responsible structures. If there are shortcomings, we analyze everything on-line and, if necessary, make amendments to the current legislation, which we did in accordance with the basic law on foreign agents.”

Political scientist Alexei Makarkin believes that the change in the resonant bill was dictated not so much by public comments, but by the desire to preserve space for political maneuver: “A situation may arise when, for some reason, the state will need to allow some foreign NPO to operate, but the law has banned it.” The political scientist suggested that the authorities might potentially be interested in cooperation with NGOs from both friendly and unfriendly countries: “Say, some organization that works with traditionalists or conservatives, or, on the contrary, some left-wing organization that criticizes the policies of the United States.” Aleksey Makarkin notes that the wording of laws – for example, on foreign agents – often “does not oblige the state to make any decisions, but give the authority to make such decisions.”

Grigory Leiba