Limits on Foreign NGOs Weighed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: The Moscow Times
November 14, 2006 Author: Nabi Abdullaev


In a move to restrict foreign influence on the domestic political process, the State Duma may soon bar foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations from sponsoring political parties.

"We have to put an end to the influence of foreign money on Russian politics," Communist Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin said Monday.

Ilyukhin co-authored a bill that would prevent foreign-funded NGOs from making donations to political parties and organizations involved in referendums.

The bill was submitted last Friday to the Duma's Public and Religious Organizations Committee.

Current law forbids political parties from accepting money from the citizens of other countries as well as state-owned companies and legal entities in which foreign investors have more than a 30 percent stake.

Another law, signed by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year, allows Russian NGOs to accept money from foreign donors but requires that they fully disclose their finances to the government.

"This bill is necessary to ensure fair elections," said Valery Sergiyenko, a Rodina deputy who co-sponsored the bill. He added that in the past, liberal parties had accepted money from abroad.

Ilyukhin said Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces had taken money from foreign donors.

Sergei Mitrokhin, a leader of Yabloko, denied the accusation and accused the pro-Kremlin United Russia party of deliberately hobbling opposition parties.

"This bill is designed to help United Russia get rid of any competition before the elections," Mitrokhin said. "Just the suggestion that an opposition party had received foreign money from an NGO would make it easier to have that party stricken from the ballot."

The Kremlin became increasingly concerned about foreign involvement in politics after the "color" revolutions that led to regime change in Georgia and Ukraine. Foreign NGOs played an active role in both countries.

"No self-respecting country allows this," Putin said last summer of the influence of foreign money on domestic politics. "We will not allow this either."