MOSCOW -- Russia has declared the British think tank Chatham House an "undesirable" organization amid its ongoing crackdown on international and domestic NGOs, media, and democratic institutions.
In its April 8 statement, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office gave a standard explanation for the move, saying that the organization’s activities pose “a threat to the Russian Federation's constitutional order and security."
The move was initiated by a commission of the Russian parliament‘s lower chamber, the State Duma, which asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office to add 14 international NGOs of Poland, Germany, and Britain, including Chatham House, to the list of undesirable organizations.
The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources.
Chatham House, officially known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a more than century-old research institute based in London focused on international affairs.