Putin's Russia
The Guardian reports on the harassment meted out to independent voices in Russia who don't belong to the Vladimir Putin fan club.
Yet in all the time I've watched the propaganda TV channel 'Russia Today', I've never heard RT cover a subject like this or interviewed any of the people concerned, like the dangerous 'foreign' agent Anna Sharogradskaya.
Harassed and shunned, the Russians labelled foreign agents by Kremlin
Government is using bureaucracy to silence country’s last independent voices, say civil dissidents
Russian NGOs have been subjected to low-level harassment, including the locking of computers. Photograph: Garry Wade/Getty Images
By Kate Lyons and Mark Rice-Oxley - The Guardian
When Anna Sharogradskaya attempted to leave Russia to visit the US in June last year, customs officers confiscated her iPad, laptop and 11 memory sticks.
Sharogradskaya shrugged it off, assuming it was part of the normal pattern of suspicion and scrutiny she is subjected to as director of the Regional Press Institute in St Petersburg, an NGO that promotes an independent media in Russia.
When her iPad was returned, she got a nasty shock. “Ipad is locked,” said a message on the home screen. “Try again in 23,420,874 minutes.”
“That’s 45 years,” she said. “I’m already 74. What kind of a joke is that?”
By Kate Lyons and Mark Rice-Oxley - The Guardian
When Anna Sharogradskaya attempted to leave Russia to visit the US in June last year, customs officers confiscated her iPad, laptop and 11 memory sticks.
Sharogradskaya shrugged it off, assuming it was part of the normal pattern of suspicion and scrutiny she is subjected to as director of the Regional Press Institute in St Petersburg, an NGO that promotes an independent media in Russia.
When her iPad was returned, she got a nasty shock. “Ipad is locked,” said a message on the home screen. “Try again in 23,420,874 minutes.”
“That’s 45 years,” she said. “I’m already 74. What kind of a joke is that?”
Anna Sharogradskaya of the Regional Press Institute. Photograph: MRO
It’s the kind of “joke”, low-level harassment, intrusion and pressure that leaders of Russian NGOs have been subjected to since Russia introduced a restrictive “foreign agents” law in 2012. The law requires NGOs that receive foreign funding, and conduct what the ministry of justice deems to be political activity, to register as foreign agents – a term that has strong connotations for Russians of cold war-era espionage.
Accepting the term means “you’re persecuted as a national traitor”, said Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the Golos Association, the only independent election watchdog in Russia, which was the first NGO added to the list of foreign agents in 2013.
Once labelled as foreign agents, organisations struggle to gain access to government officials and public institutions such as schools. “Authorities are afraid to go to events run by foreign agents,” said Melkonyants. They are obliged to mark all their publications with “foreign agent” and to begin each oral statement with a disclosure that it is being given by a foreign agent.
“We are being punished,” said Sharogradskya when she, Melkonyants and a group of Russian civil leaders met at the Guardian offices in London. “We’re being punished for providing a podium for people the government doesn’t like, providing a floor for those who are blacklisted.”
The laws, Melkonyants suggested, are a means of silencing the last independent voices in Russia through bureaucracy. “We’re not doing anything illegal, so it’s not simple to shut us down,” he said.
“Prosecutors come to offices and ask for documents [detailing the] activity of the organisation for the past three years. Different inspectors come at the same time and demand multiple copies. They all have different demands: one says ‘Register as a foreign agent’, one says ‘Pay fines [in order] not to be registered as a foreign agent’, the third says ‘Pay taxes on donations’.
“If they fine you €40,000 you can’t pay, so that’s a reason to shut down the organisation and begin a criminal procedure against the head of the organisation.”
The so-called foreign agent laws, which were introduced in 2012, originally required NGOs to voluntarily register as foreign agents. When they did not comply, the government responded with a wave of inspections in 2013, targeting more than 1,000 NGOs across the country. Many were fined for failing to register voluntarily and their leaders now face criminal prosecution for violating the law.
In March this year, Sharogradskaya paid a fine of 400,000 roubles (£5,000) for refusing to register the Regional Press Institute as a foreign agent – the largest fine yet to be paid under the law.
There are currently 55 Russian NGOs that have been added to the foreign agent blacklist, including Citizens’ Watch, the Human Rights Resource Centre and the Committee Against Torture.
It’s the kind of “joke”, low-level harassment, intrusion and pressure that leaders of Russian NGOs have been subjected to since Russia introduced a restrictive “foreign agents” law in 2012. The law requires NGOs that receive foreign funding, and conduct what the ministry of justice deems to be political activity, to register as foreign agents – a term that has strong connotations for Russians of cold war-era espionage.
Accepting the term means “you’re persecuted as a national traitor”, said Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the Golos Association, the only independent election watchdog in Russia, which was the first NGO added to the list of foreign agents in 2013.
Once labelled as foreign agents, organisations struggle to gain access to government officials and public institutions such as schools. “Authorities are afraid to go to events run by foreign agents,” said Melkonyants. They are obliged to mark all their publications with “foreign agent” and to begin each oral statement with a disclosure that it is being given by a foreign agent.
“We are being punished,” said Sharogradskya when she, Melkonyants and a group of Russian civil leaders met at the Guardian offices in London. “We’re being punished for providing a podium for people the government doesn’t like, providing a floor for those who are blacklisted.”
The laws, Melkonyants suggested, are a means of silencing the last independent voices in Russia through bureaucracy. “We’re not doing anything illegal, so it’s not simple to shut us down,” he said.
“Prosecutors come to offices and ask for documents [detailing the] activity of the organisation for the past three years. Different inspectors come at the same time and demand multiple copies. They all have different demands: one says ‘Register as a foreign agent’, one says ‘Pay fines [in order] not to be registered as a foreign agent’, the third says ‘Pay taxes on donations’.
“If they fine you €40,000 you can’t pay, so that’s a reason to shut down the organisation and begin a criminal procedure against the head of the organisation.”
The so-called foreign agent laws, which were introduced in 2012, originally required NGOs to voluntarily register as foreign agents. When they did not comply, the government responded with a wave of inspections in 2013, targeting more than 1,000 NGOs across the country. Many were fined for failing to register voluntarily and their leaders now face criminal prosecution for violating the law.
In March this year, Sharogradskaya paid a fine of 400,000 roubles (£5,000) for refusing to register the Regional Press Institute as a foreign agent – the largest fine yet to be paid under the law.
There are currently 55 Russian NGOs that have been added to the foreign agent blacklist, including Citizens’ Watch, the Human Rights Resource Centre and the Committee Against Torture.
Grigori Melkonyants Photograph: MRO
Six Russian organisations have been forced by the laws to shut down operations to avoid criminal prosecutions for repeatedly violating the law, including Side by Side – an LGBT film festival – and various branches of the Golos Association, run by Melkonyants.
The decision about what constitutes “political activity” from an NGO is at the discretion of the Russian government. The group tells of one organisation forced to register as a foreign agent because one of its offices had a book about Russian election results on a bookshelf, which the inspectors cited as evidence that it was involved in political activity.
Sergei Lukashevsky, director of the Sakharov Centre, which is named after the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and aims to continue his work of defending human rights, said the laws were an attempt to suffocate opposition.
“The situation for independent NGOs is not a case of destruction or genocide but ghettos. You can receive foreign money, but if you do, you then talk with foreigners. You have no contact with any government bodies,” he said.
The group reels off difficulties it has encountered since the laws were introduced: being shunned in social circles, participating in drawn-out court cases, struggling to recruit staff when the situation is so precarious. When asked if they believed the Russian government listened to their phone calls or read their emails, they shrugged – of course.
Melkonyants said he was certain his calls were listened to on three occasions, as plans he made only over the phone were known about by the authorities.
When asked why the Russian government would feel the need to crack down on their organisations so heavily when opposition in Russia was so anaemic, Melkonyants said: “Just like an army always needs war, the authorities need an enemy to justify their existence. It’s very convenient for them to talk about foreign agents. They need people who they can fight against.”
Everyone in the group knows of people for whom the pressure has become too intense and who have left Russia, yet none of those who met the Guardian had plans to leave.
“We are critical patriots,” said Lukashevsky.
Sharogradskaya said: “I love Russia, but I don’t like what’s happened to Russia. I’ve had plenty of opportunity to leave the country, but decided I wanted to stay to do something. It’s my home.”
Six Russian organisations have been forced by the laws to shut down operations to avoid criminal prosecutions for repeatedly violating the law, including Side by Side – an LGBT film festival – and various branches of the Golos Association, run by Melkonyants.
The decision about what constitutes “political activity” from an NGO is at the discretion of the Russian government. The group tells of one organisation forced to register as a foreign agent because one of its offices had a book about Russian election results on a bookshelf, which the inspectors cited as evidence that it was involved in political activity.
Sergei Lukashevsky, director of the Sakharov Centre, which is named after the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and aims to continue his work of defending human rights, said the laws were an attempt to suffocate opposition.
“The situation for independent NGOs is not a case of destruction or genocide but ghettos. You can receive foreign money, but if you do, you then talk with foreigners. You have no contact with any government bodies,” he said.
The group reels off difficulties it has encountered since the laws were introduced: being shunned in social circles, participating in drawn-out court cases, struggling to recruit staff when the situation is so precarious. When asked if they believed the Russian government listened to their phone calls or read their emails, they shrugged – of course.
Melkonyants said he was certain his calls were listened to on three occasions, as plans he made only over the phone were known about by the authorities.
When asked why the Russian government would feel the need to crack down on their organisations so heavily when opposition in Russia was so anaemic, Melkonyants said: “Just like an army always needs war, the authorities need an enemy to justify their existence. It’s very convenient for them to talk about foreign agents. They need people who they can fight against.”
Everyone in the group knows of people for whom the pressure has become too intense and who have left Russia, yet none of those who met the Guardian had plans to leave.
“We are critical patriots,” said Lukashevsky.
Sharogradskaya said: “I love Russia, but I don’t like what’s happened to Russia. I’ve had plenty of opportunity to leave the country, but decided I wanted to stay to do something. It’s my home.”
