Justice Ministry: 12 NGOs classed as foreign agents still have time to correct breaches
MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) - Twelve non-government organizations (NGOs) classed as foreign agents, which the Justice Ministry warned about administrative liability for breaching the federal legislation in July, have 1,5 weeks to report on the elimination of these breaches, the ministry press service has reported.
"Documents confirming the elimination of the breaches are to be sent [by the NGOs] to the Russian Justice Ministry by August 26," the press service said in a report received by Interfax on Friday.
On July 21, the Justice Ministry said warnings about the liability for violating the legislation had been issued to 12 NGOs classed as foreign agents.
Specifically, directives have been sent to NGOs such as Civil Assistance, Memorial, the Sakharov Center, For Human Rights, the information and education center Memorial, Transparency International-R, Committee against Torture, the Press development Institute - Siberia, Bellona-Murmansk, Maximum (Murmansk), Civil Control (St. Petersburg) and Resource Human Rights Center.
The agency then said NGOs that are classed as foreign agents are required to state their status when they publish and disseminate materials in the mass media and the Internet, which the said NGOs did not do.
Under Article 19.34 of the Russian Code of Administrative Violations, the publication by an NGO fulfilling the functions of a foreign agent of materials and their dissemination, including through the mass media and using the Internet, without stating that these materials have been published and disseminated by an NGO that is a foreign agent is punishable by a fine of 100,000 rubles to 300,000 rubles for officials and 300,000 rubles to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.