A group of Russian deputies loyal to President Putin are seeking to bring NGOs, especially those funded with foreign money, under state control. Draft amendments to three existing laws would curb the whole strata of independent civil society, say reports in the Moscow Times and Financial Times.
The move comes ahead of next year's national elections and could end in the closure of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Open Russia and the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch. Head of the latter, Alexander Petrov, even fears "We might have to work from abroad as in Soviet times".
"The proposed amendments are nothing less than an attempt to establish totalitarian control over the whole of the country, and in particular over the institution [NGOs] that allows citizens to solve their own problems without government interference," remarked Yury Vdovin, deputy chairman of the Citizens' Watch organisation.
The amendments presented this week would force Russia's 450,000 NGOs to reregister with a state commission within one year. Critics say they would allow the Russian government to ban NGOs which criticize its policies and shut down subsidiaries of foreign NGOs, if they refuse to reform as "social associations" with Russian memberships. Either way, the bill in its present form would grant the state effective control over civil society - rendering it just another part of the state.
Putin branded foreign NGOs in July as "levers for a competitive struggle" with the Russian government. On the subject of foreign groups funding political activities, Putin warned: "No self-respecting state allows this, and we will not allow it".
The hard-line bill follows the 'Orange revolution roadshow' in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, events that Russia's elite blames on politically active, foreign funded NGOs. Putin sees these events as Western plots designed to counter Russian influence in key strategic regions. And Putin has variously accused foreign NGOs of being Trojan Horses, vehicles for Western intelligence agencies.
Whether or not this can be proven, Victor Yushenko and his counterparts have already spent much of their political capital in corruption scandals. This gives Putin an extra stick with which to beat foreign NGOs, blaming them as he does for helping "destabilise" Russia's massive backyard. But London media group Opendemocracy argues that Putin's own "authoritarian security-business nexus" is doing a good enough job of this already.
In another move last month, Putin ordered the creation of a Public Chamber - a smokescreen or alternative parliament in the eyes of critics - to act as a media and civil society "watchdog". The Public Chamber is expected to be filled with Kremlin loyalists and is due to open its doors in January 2006.
The bill's first reading should take place in the next two weeks, with a vote expected in December or early next year.
