Putin against toughening or liberalizing NGO law
SELIGER, Tver region. Aug 2 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the law on non-governmental organizations (NGO) operating as foreign agents should not be toughened or liberalized.
"Should we improve something? Perhaps yes. But not from the viewpoint of toughening something and not even with the view of liberalizing something but with the intention of establishing order," Putin said at the Seliger youth forum in the Tver region when asked whether the relevant law should be toughened.
There should be clear and unambiguous criteria of what can be defined as political activities, he said.
Putin insisted that the matter concerns fair distribution of funds that the state allocates to human rights organizations.
"We have agreed that human rights organizations themselves will set up an organization to which the state will give this money, and this organization will distribute this money among human rights organizations regardless of whether they receive grants from abroad or not. But those who receive [funding from abroad] and are engaged in politics will have only to be registered as foreign agents," he said.
Putin called this the fairest form of distribution of state funds, so that no one could criticize the state for "paying and ordering the music."
"We want our human rights organizations to work as independently of the state as possible but, of course, have the opportunity to enjoy support," Putin said.
