Putin orders government agencies to submit list of 'foreign agent' NGOs by March
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his administration, the Justice Ministry, and other state organizations to submit a list of non-governmental organizations that are classified as foreign agents by March 30th, 2017, TASS reported.
In 2012, the Russian State Duma adopted a law requiring all nongovernmental organizations engaged in political activity that receive funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” with the Ministry of Justice, a designation that severely hinders an NGO's ability to operate in the Russian Federation
Last year, the Russian Ministry of Justice defined political activity as any work in the sphere of federal or municipal policies, defense, foreign policy, human rights, and civil rights.
In September, the Levada Center, an independent, non-governmental polling and sociological research organization, was included on the list of “foreign agents”, where it joins the human rights organization Memorial and the election monitoring group Golos, among others.