Russian Ministry of Justice: Levada Center recently put on register of foreign agents faces administrative, criminal charges for violating NGO law
MOSCOW. Sept 16 (Interfax) - Russia's Ministry of Justice has warned the Levada Center, which was recently put on the registry of foreign agents, that it may face administrative or criminal responsibility if failing to comply with the requirements set for the organizations that have such a status.
"Violating or failure to abide by the legislation on the non-governmental organizations performing functions of a foreign agent may lead to administrative and criminal responsibility," the Ministry of Justice said in a communication that Interfax received in response to its inquiry on Friday.
The Ministry of Justice and its territorial offices may also resolve to subject a commercial firm failing to submit an application in view of its inclusion in the register of foreign agents to "administrative sanctions under Article 19.34 Part 1 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses, subject to the period of limitations that is one year", the ministry said.
This article specifies for responsibility in the form of a fine up to 300,000 rubles.
"As of September 16, the application of the director of the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization named Yuri Levada Analytical Center, L.D. Gudkov, which contains the conclusions about unlawfulness of the decision made by the Russian Ministry of Justice, is under consideration," the ministry said.