Kremlin Reiterates It Has Nothing Against NGOs

Russian police remove a demonstrator protesting against the passage through the State Duma of a bill on NGOs, December 2005. (RFE/RL) 3 February 2006 -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that Moscow has nothing against nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), despite allegations that British spies have been financing such groups.

NGOs say they fear the Russian authorities are aiming to clamp down on their freedoms using a tough new law signed by President Vladimir Putin in January. Those fears were heightened on 22 January when a documentary on state-run television alleged that members of the British embassy were acting as spies, adding that one of them had been in charge of funding some high-profile NGOs.

Lavrov told a gathering of 80 representatives of Russian NGOs that "no branch of government has expressed any complaints about NGOs."

(AFP)

Lyudmila Alekseyeva

Lyudmila Alekseyeva (TASS)

THE END OF THE 'GOLDEN AGE' Moscow Helsinki Group founder and Chairwoman LYUDMILA ALEKSEYEVA spoke at an RFE/RL briefing in Washington, D.C., on October 26, discussing the difficulties facing Russian nongovernmental organizations. Tanya Lokshina, chairwoman of the DEMOS Center for Information and Research, also participated in the briefing.
According to Alekseyeva, who is a regular contributor to RFE/RL's Russian Service, the time in office of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin is considered a "golden age" for Russian NGOs -- even though this is "not [because] Yeltsin was a strong democrat," but rather because "society was left to its own devices and we managed to build civil society" while the "power elites" struggled among themselves and ignored the lower strata. Alekseyeva said Russia has emerged from its economic crises under President Vladimir Putin, but there is "no division of power in Russia under the model of executive vertical controls," where regional governors, a "puppet parliament," and a judiciary "stripped" of independence are under the Kremlin's control. Nonetheless, according to Alekseyeva, Russia is "not returning to Soviet times," because "today the attacks are selective" and "there is now a civil society" to resist the pressure.
Alekseyeva expressed concern that "Western democratic states don't react to attacks on human rights." She said that "in Soviet times, we few dissidents felt enormous Western support." She called that support "our shield," which she said is now missing. The supporters of civil society feel "now abandoned by Western allies," Alekseyeva said.