Moscow prosecutors told Russia’s oldest human rights group on Tuesday that it must register as a “foreign agent” under a new law that critics say is a move by President Vladimir Putin to silence dissent.<\/p>\n
Memorial opened in 1987 to document the Soviet Union’s totalitarian past but has also spoken out against the detention of Russians held after an anti-Putin protest last year that turned violent.<\/p>\n
“We don’t aim to register, we aim to appeal against this,” Memorial’s head, Aleksander Cherkasov, told media. Much of Memorial’s funding comes from abroad, particularly Sweden, Norway, Holland and the European Commission.<\/p>\n
Memorial was among the hundreds of groups whose offices have been searched over recent weeks under the new law.<\/p>\n
It said the searches were meant to scare them into registering under the rules that demand non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding and engage in “political activity” register as “foreign agents”, a term which carries overtones of treason.<\/p>\n
“They say we are engaged in so-called political activity because we defend political prisoners, people sentenced on political grounds, and tracking detentions during street protests,” Cherkasov said.<\/p>\n
“(The law) is aimed at leaving in place only those organizations that get government financing.”<\/p>\n
It was not clear what would happen to the many groups that plan to refused the Moscow prosecutor’s office to register within a month.<\/p>\n
Pavel Chikov, head of Agora, another rights group that does not intend to register, said that 24 groups, including an independent election watchdog and global anti-corruption network Transparency International, were now considered “foreign agents”.<\/p>\n
Putin had said the inspections of organizations’ premises were “routine” and that the law was needed to prevent groups that get financing from abroad from spying for foreign capitals.<\/p>\n
Since returning to the Kremlin, Putin has approved several laws that critics say are meant to clamp down on dissent.<\/p>\n
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