Russia's "foreign agents" bill to apply to about 100 NPOs
MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - Russia's planned law to confer "foreign agent" status on foreign-funded Russian nonprofit organizations engaging in politics would apply to about 100 NPOs, one of the authors of the bill, proposed by the United Russia party, said on Tuesday.
"I think there are about 100 nonprofit organizations that meet the criteria stated in our draft law," Alexander Sidyakin, a State Duma deputy representing United Russia, said at a meeting of the Duma Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations.
Altogether there are about 1,000 NPOs in Russia that receive funding from abroad but most of them are non-political groups, according to Sidyakin.
Sidyakin claimed that the bill was nearly a replica of a U.S. act brought out in 1938. However, the Russian bill offers a totally clear explanation of the term "political activities" and makes a narrower interpretation of it than the American act does, the lawmaker said.
Sidyakin said most of the criticism of the "foreign agents" bill comes from "quasi-political NPOs" that "find it very convenient to get [money] for projects that allegedly have to do with arts or the conservation of nature or animals but in actual fact use this money for influence on the political life of our country."
He said, citing experts, that in recent years Russian NPOs had received foreign funding to a total of about 7 billion rubles.
"The lion share of those resources has been spent on attempts to generate influence on political processes in our country," Sidyakin said.
