Those who got into the register doubt that the amendments made to the State Duma will ease their fate
This week, the story of attempts to amend the legislation on foreign agents continued. The Presidential HRC and the Union of Journalists submitted amendments to the State Duma concerning the media and organizations recognized as foreign agents. Quite quickly, some of these amendments received the status of draft laws – they were submitted to the Chamber by the Fair Russia faction. These events may turn out to be indicators of significant changes in the domestic policy of the country.
Photo: Gennady Cherkasov
The obvious context of the amended story was as follows. Last week, the Prosecutor General’s Office sent a petition to the court for the liquidation of one of the oldest Russian human rights organizations – Memorial. He is listed in the official register of NGOs-foreign agents, and is accused, among other things, of not fulfilling the requirements of the relevant legislation.
Then amendments were submitted to the Duma committee on information policy, the meaning of which is the removal of uncertainty in the norms defining the procedure for entering citizens and organizations into the relevant registers. And there was information that the date of the traditional meeting of President Vladimir Putin with members of the Human Rights Council, who are likely to try to find out the attitude of the head of state to their initiatives, including amendments, has been approved – December 9.
And at the end of this week, two Nobel laureates, Mikhail Gorbachev and Dmitry Muratov, expressed their rejection of the possibility of closing the Memorial in an appeal to the authorities.
As for the actual amendments to the law on foreign agents, there is no certainty yet. The HRC and the Union of Journalists of Russia propose to introduce two important innovations concerning the media and journalists, as well as public and human rights organizations: before these or others appear in the registers of foreign agents, they must be warned about violations, and the entry into the registers itself should take place not by a closed departmental decision, but by a court decision.
In addition, criteria are proposed by which it is estimated that the “foreign agent” is maintained by certain foreign entities: for example, the amount of 200 rubles cannot be considered such content – we must talk about proportionate figures. It is proposed not to count the participation of the same journalists in conferences or exchanges where foreigners were not in the main roles – for example, they paid for tea in the buffet.
However, neither the HRC nor the CJ have the right to introduce bills. Therefore, the fact that the Duma faction of “Fair Russia” took up the amendments is very significant. The number of amendments officially introduced by the helpers included only those that relate to the media-foreign agents and citizens classified among them, and it was proposed to determine separately the amount of amounts that the court may consider foreign content. But it is not enough to introduce a bill, it is necessary that a majority of deputies vote for it.
Why are the spravoross interested in only a part of the amendments proposed by the HRC and the CJ? Deputy Head of the faction Dmitry Gusev explains this by the fact that the “SR” went its own way to its decision, so there is no point in comparing the lists of amendments. “The faction has its own position. We are in favor of an absolutely fair judicial procedure adopted all over the world, including for the inclusion of organizations in foreign agents. Now this is happening by the decision of the relevant body, and we offerto do this through a warning at the first stage, and at the second – through the court, so that there is no accidental entry of people into this database. There are costs, “- said the representative of “SR”. In addition, Dmitry Gusev invited everyone who has additional proposals to send them to the faction – they can be taken into account. He also called for waiting with assessments of the prospects for the support of the initiative by other factions – only a few days have passed since the introduction of the bill.
Representatives of the two factions – the Communist Party and the “New People” are limited to expressing general support for individual ideas. However, with all due respect to them, the fate of the amendments will not be decided by them, but by the United Russia faction. But considering that a direct assessment of the initiative from the president is expected soon enough, the EP faction will not confuse the matter with impromptu.
As for the “foreign agents” themselves, they are very restrained in their assessments of the proposed legislative changes, as well as the reality of their adoption in general, and pay attention to the fact that the amendments that have reached the State Duma are relevant only to the media and journalists, without affecting NGOs.
Maria Kravchenko, head of the department of the Sova center recognized as a foreign agent, believes: “Of course, we can say that both these and other amendments can improve the situation to some extent for different categories of foreign agents, but it should be borne in mind that this law itself is written in such a way that everything concerning the definition of political activity is formulated extremely vaguely in it. And this is a very important point.
Any statement concerning criticism of the state of affairs in the country, any proposals for changing legislation – all this, combined with the receipt of some funds, can still lead to inclusion in the register. And it is not worth counting on the fact that the participation of the court will significantly improve the situation. Although, probably, the volume and speed of inclusion in the registers of new people and organizations, it may slow down somewhat.”
Lev Ponomarev, who is included in the list of individuals performing the functions of a foreign media agent, believes that if the clarification of the legislation is consistent, it will affect not only journalists: “The amendments that may be adopted concern mainly journalists. For human rights defenders – I looked – they do not contribute anything significant. The journalists have gathered, they have reference points: HRC, CJ…
The more fully these amendments are adopted, the better. Here is an important amendment (at the HRC – Auth), how many percent (of foreign financing – “MK”) have received. Now I got a dollar – and that’s it, hello. There will almost certainly be amendments from the authorities: not to include in the register any funds that deal with health and so on.”
Alexander Cherkasov, chairman of the board of the Memorial Center, recognized as a foreign agent, is understandably tougher in wording: “The law on foreign agents is bad not in details, but in general. It should be abolished as such. It is based on false promises. … Well, it’s as if there was an amendment on the ordering of corporal punishment. It’s about the details, not the substance.
The categories of media-foreign agents, individuals-media-foreign agents themselves are a phantom. The amendments may slightly ease someone’s existence, but they do not touch the essence, which introduces the general delirium of the situation to the rank of norm.”
Representatives of non-agent organizations explain that the issue of foreign financing of NGOs appeared largely not because of the desire to take funds from any particular foreign source. Lev Ponomarev, for example, recalls that not so long ago human rights defenders and other public organizations had a completely legitimate alternative – Russian grants, andtherefore, many of today’s “foreign agents” did not use foreign funds. The curtailment of these programs and recommendations to businesses not to provide support, in fact, raised the question of either closing or searching for other sources. In turn, Alexander Cherkasov clearly does not believe that state-sanctioned financing can be non-binding.