Moscow Helsinki Group head Alexeyeva concerned the organization may be qualified as foreign agent
MOSCOW. Oct 4 (Interfax) - The Russian Justice Ministry's decision to put the International Memorial society on the register of non-governmental organizations (NGO) acting as foreign agents speaks volumes about the state's attitude toward civil society, Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva.
"This shows how the Justice Ministry treats our civil society. As soon as someone does something, they are immediately qualified as a foreign agent. Only the organizations set up from above presumably as rights-defending ones are prospering and are not designated as foreign agents. As for the rest, they've already been qualified as such," Alexeyeva told Interfax.
All credible human rights organizations in Russia have already been qualified as foreign agents except for the Moscow Helsinki Group, but the latter may become such in the future, Alexeyeva said. "It seems to me it's improper now not to be a foreign agent," she said.
Anyway, human rights defenders have known more difficult times, Alexeyeva said.
"We went through this, and those who persecuted and harassed us in the Soviet Union - where are they now? We will have very difficult times in the short run, but civil society will win in the long run. There are a lot of us, and the victory will be ours," she said.
The Justice Ministry had announced on September 7 that it was conducting an unplanned inspection of the Memorial society to see whether it fitted the foreign agent definition.