Source: HRO.org (info) 

• Right of association

According to information from the Ministry of Justice: “At the present time work has started, within the Ministry, on elaborating the appropriate procedures. The details will be available on the government portal which provides information on the working out, by federal agencies of the executive branch, of projected government regulations and of the results of any public discussion (www.regulation.gov.org)”.

According to Zaks.ru, an informant from the ministry noted that, in accordance with the federal law “On interventions in the case of persons, participating in the infringement of fundamental human rights and freedoms, the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens”, public information on the classing of the activity of a foreign or an international non-governmental organization on the territory of the country as undesirable “is effected by placing it on the official site of the Russian Ministry of Justice in the list of foreign and international non-governmental organizations, the activity of which is recognized as undesirable on the territory of the RF”.

“At the same time” according to Interfax, quoting the ministry, “procedures for maintaining the list, for including and removing foreign and international non-governmental organizations, are the prerogative of the Ministry of Justice”.

As was reported on 23 May 2015, president Putin signed the law on the so-called “foreign and international organizations which are undesirable in Russia”, despite a massive amount of criticism. According to the law, the activity of a foreign or international non-governmental organization can be deemed undesirable if it represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional structure of the RF, the defensive capability of the country or the security of the state.

The law gives the Prosecutor General of the RF or his deputies the right to forbid undesirable organizations to realize programmes or projects on the territory of the RF. Such a step must be agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Provision is also made for the removing of an organization from the list.

In addition, the law obliges banks and other financial organizations to refuse to engage in financial or property transactions if one of the parties is an organization included in the list of undesirables. Amendments made at the bill’s second reading oblige banks and other financial organizations also to provide information to Rosfinmonitoring on their refusal to carry out such transactions, and Rosfinmonitoring in turn submits this information to the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Justice.

The law also specifies the penalty for the carrying out of an activity by an undesirable organization when the activity is not of a criminal nature. In this case administrative fines are envisaged: from 5-15,000 roubles for an ordinary citizen, from 20-50,000 for an official, and from 50-100,000 roubles for a legal entity.

The law provides for the bringing of criminal charges if the leadership or participants of the undesirable organization have twice in one year been subject to administrative penalties for their activities. Here fines of 300-500,000 roubles, or a fine equivalent to the convicted individual’s salary or other income for 2-3 years, or up to 360 hours of voluntary work, are envisaged. An individual who voluntarily ends his participation in the activities of an undesirable organization is no longer held criminally responsible, as long as no other criminal offence has been associated with his activities.

Translated by Mary McAuley