News story
Foreign Office expresses concern about new Russian NGO law
A Foreign Office spokesperson said that the new law which labels Russian NGOs receiving foreign funding as foreign agents, and subjects them to increased scrutiny, is deeply worrying.
“Many Russian NGOs receive foreign support for their important activities in the fields of human rights, the rule of law and anti-corruption. They make a crucial contribution to the protection of democratic rights and to the development of a vibrant civil society in Russia. By creating additional burdensome requirements for NGOs, and labelling them with a term seemingly designed to generate mistrust, this move can only be seen as having a negative impact on the free operation of civil society.”
Published 25 July 2012