Bill on "foreign agent" status for foreign-funded NPOs submitted to Duma - Yarovaya
MOSCOW. June 29 (Interfax) - A bill has formally been laid before State Duma, which gives a "foreign agent" status for Russian nonprofit organizations (NPOs) engaged in political activity and having foreign sources of funding, head of the Duma Committee for Security and Combating Corruption Irina Yarovaya told Interfax.
"The bill has formally been submitted, and we its authors believe there is no hindrance to its passage. It is completely obvious that it is useful both for the society and for NPOs themselves," said the deputy who co-authored the amendments to the law on nonprofit organizations.
The bill was submitted on Friday, she said.
The authors of the bill did their part: submitted the document for house debate, following which work on the bill should continue in accordance with the Duma regulations, Yarovaya said.
It was reported that the amendments to the law, which formally classify all politically active, foreign-funded NPOs as "foreign agents," were drafted by the author of the latest version of the law on rallies, United Russia deputy Alexander Sidyakin.
The changes proposed by United Russia deputies will apply only to those NPOs which get funding from foreign organizations or nationals and are engaged in political activity. Such NPOs will have to be registered by the Justice Ministry in a separate register and assigned a status of an organization "performing the functions of a foreign agent".
