Putin re "foreign agent" NGO law: No one tries to humiliate anyone but Russia must stay sovereign
MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) - The "foreign agent" NGO law needs improvement because it fails to meet present-day realities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that the law did not aim to humiliate human rights activists.
"No one was trying to offend or humiliate anyone in the first place. If you have been paying attention, and you have just referred to my address delivered yesterday, I said and this is my deep conviction that "Russia will either stay a sovereign state or it will not exist at all," Putin said at a meeting with ombudsmen for human rights, child rights and business rights.
The president commented on a statement by Human Rights Ombudsperson Ella Pamfilova who said that the "foreign agent" NGO law needed improvement so that "it did not humiliate human rights activists and let those working do their job normally."
"Anyway, we must determine our fate on our own, we must organize our life on our own and we must react to problems, of which we have plenty, on our own, do so inside this country. Nevertheless, I agree and, we have discussed this many times, that this law definitely needs improvement: it is not ideal and, probably, fails to meet present-day realities to a degree. It should definitely be adjusted because certain things disagree with the original essence of what we expected to achieve," the president said.
He offered human rights activists to think about a solution to the problem together.