Human rights activists are useful - Russian premier
MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that he treats what human rights organizations are doing with respect.
"I have a respectful attitude to them. We do not see eye to eye on many issues and have argued a lot, but their work is useful for the country in general. In my opinion, they are largely playing the role of first aiders - they draw the authorities' attention to problems, although our views on many issues differ," Medvedev told Russian television stations on Friday, commenting on the functioning of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Memorial and Transparency International.
The recently enacted amendments to the law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assign foreign agent status to such entities if they receive grants from the West.
All leading NGOs, including the Moscow Helsinki Group, Memorial, Golos, Civil Support and For Human Rights, announced their boycott of the new rules.
Human rights activists argue that they have to seek foreign grants because in Russia the independent civil sector gets financial support neither from the government nor business.
"We are only looking for forms to regulate this activity. To say the least, it is wrong to immediately suspect that the authorities did so to prevent something or to throw a noose around the neck of some NGOs because nothing has happened so far," Medvedev said.
These legislative amendments were modeled after similar laws in the United States, the prime minister said.
Medvedev disagreed that these principles are archaic.
"It is hard to say. Americans stick to it. Furthermore, they keep adding new formulas to it - for example, in the 1960s they enlarged this list by a ban on the funding of political parties and the electoral system from foreign sources," the prime minister said.
"It is not yet clear how this system will work. But such a measure is quite possible. There is no intention to ban foreign agents themselves or qualify certain NGOs as criminal. God forbid. It only means that special rules will be applied to all organizations that are engaged in politics and receive money from foreign states. Similar rules exist all over the world. It is hard to imagine a situation where an American NGO would receive funding from the Russian federal budget. In my opinion, it would be a nationwide scandal in America. The only thing we want is to have additional control over such operations because it is a domestic issue, a sovereign right of the state in question," Medvedev said.