Unwanted help – Newspaper Kommersant No. 68 (7513) of 04/19/2023

The State Duma Commission on Combating Foreign Interference on Tuesday presented another package of amendments to tighten control over foreign agents. In particular, it is proposed to deprive them of not only financial, but also property support from the state, as well as punish those who help foreign agents to circumvent the prohibitions provided for by law. For the first time, the Ministry of Justice will issue a warning to such citizens or organizations, and then administrative liability is provided. The deputies also intend to allow only those foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that officially register their Russian subdivisions with the Ministry of Justice to work in the Russian Federation.

The meeting of the Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia on April 18 was held in a closed mode from the media. At the end of it, the chairman of the commission, the head of the Duma Committee on Security, Vasily Piskarev (United Russia), spoke about the newly developed “package of five bills” concerning the activities of foreign agents and foreign NGOs.

These initiatives, he said, were the result of identifying gaps in the law “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence.” The law, adopted in the summer of 2022, contains 18 prohibitions for foreign agents, but some legal entities or individuals interacting with them, as it turned out, help to circumvent these prohibitions. True, the deputy did not give specific examples, but said that one of the proposed amendments would oblige individuals and organizations, regardless of citizenship and form of ownership, to comply with the requirements of the law on foreign agents. It is also planned to expand the powers of the Ministry of Justice to control those who help foreign agents: the department will be able to issue orders to such citizens and organizations, and if they are not followed, administrative responsibility will follow in the form of a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles.

As Oleg Matveychev (United Russia), a member of the commission, explained to Kommersant, here we can talk about such types of assistance as, for example, organizational assistance or advertising support for foreign agents. “They have a wide range of activities, so you never know how to help them. Someone, perhaps, accepts some money from them, someone collects donations for them to his wallet. Any promotion of activity, if it is proven,” said Mr. Matveychev. According to him, concrete examples of such assistance were not mentioned at the meeting of the commission.

The deputies also supported the proposal to introduce a ban on foreign agents receiving state property support. This amendment was proposed by MP Olga Zanko (United Russia). She explained her initiative by the fact that currently foreign agents are no longer entitled to receive financial support from the state, take part in the purchase of goods, works and services to meet state and municipal needs. But in terms of property support, there is no such ban in the current law, and this gap, according to Ms. Zanko, must be eliminated.

It should be noted that the absence of such a rule did not prevent, for example, the Department of City Property of Moscow from announcing in January 2023 the termination of the lease agreement for three premises of the Sakharov Center (included in the register of foreign agents), referring precisely to the new law on foreign influence and the prohibition contained therein on provision of state financial support to foreign agents. The center received these premises from the city authorities in 1993 and 1996 on a gratuitous lease basis.

The second package of amendments, presented at a meeting of the Duma commission, concerns the activities of foreign NGOs that do not register their branches or representative offices in Russia. According to Vasily Piskarev, 23 organizations that are considered undesirable in the Russian Federation did not have registered branches and worked from abroad, although Russian law obliges foreign NGOs to register with the Ministry of Justice. And if an organization does not want to register its branch or representative office in Russia, then it will certainly engage in destructive activities, the head of the commission is convinced.

The proposed amendments establish that interaction with registered foreign NGOs will be considered legitimate in Russia, otherwise Russians will face administrative liability for contacts with such organizations. According to Mr. Piskarev, as of the end of March 2023, the register of the Ministry of Justice contains information about 75 branches and representative offices of foreign NGOs. Over the past three years, 40 structural divisions of NGOs have been excluded from the register, and one of the main reasons for the exclusion is the implementation of activities that do not correspond to the stated goals, the deputy emphasized.

The amendments presented at the commission propose to introduce a new basis for refusing registration a structural subdivision of a foreign NGO: it will follow if the registered branches of this organization have already been excluded from the register for violating Russian law. “This will make it possible to stop the continuation of illegal activities by opening new branches of an organization that has already discredited itself,” Vasily Piskarev explained. At the same time, the commission proposed introducing criminal liability for persons previously convicted for participation in the activities of undesirable organizations (Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) if they take part in the activities of foreign NGOs not registered with the Ministry of Justice.

According to Mr. Piskarev, all initiatives were developed together with the Ministry of Justice, they have already received positive feedback from the government and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. “Members of the commission and deputies asked for time to study the bills. I think that in the near future, before the end of the week, we will have to complete them and submit them,” Vasily Piskarev summed up.

Elena Rozhkova