Moscow---Already branded "foreign agents" while endeavouring to help abuse victims or protect the environment, Russian activists fear a new law against "undesirable" NGOs will further stymie their work.
President Vladimir Putin over the weekend signed off on legislation that allows authorities to ban international NGOs seen as threatening "state security".
While the law -- which was condemned by the West and rights groups -- is aimed at foreign organisations, Russia's beleaguered civil society fears the draconian legislation will also leave it hamstrung.
"It will primarily hit Russian organisations and activists," Natalya Taubina of the Public Verdict group, which defends victims of abuse by police and security forces, told AFP.
Under the legislation, which allows Russia's prosecutor general powers to ban international organisations on vague security grounds, local activists who work with the "undesirables" face fines and up to six years in jail.
"We have partnerships with a number of international NGOs in the rights sphere," Taubina said.
If those partners were banned, "it's unlikely we will be able to fully carry out any of the programmes," she said.
Activists say the law continues a Kremlin crackdown on free speech that began after Putin's reelection as president in 2012 amid major protests.
Shortly after he began his third term, the authorities rushed through legislation branding Russian NGOs that receive foreign funding, and are seen as active in the politics, as "foreign agents".
Scores of Russian groups, including Public Verdict, have been slapped with the label, which was presented by Putin's supporters as necessary to prevent a Western-backed revolution.
Now activists fear being squeezed even further.
- 'Second half' -
The new law is "the second half of the same thing," said Pavel Chikov, founder of Agora, an award-winning advocacy group that has defended cases such as that of Pussy Riot punk protest group.
"The law gives the possibility to ban absolutely any activity that is independent of Russia's authorities," said Chikov, whose organisation has also been labelled a "foreign agent".
The question is whether it will be used to cut ties with "all organisations, all foundations, all institutions that cooperate with Russian NGOs," he said.
Russian authorities have become increasingly isolationist since the toppling of Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych by pro-Western protestors in neighbouring Ukraine, sparking a crisis in East-West relations.
While Putin portrays the turmoil in Ukraine as a US-inspired plot against Russia, critics believe his corrupt elite is stirring up paranoia to cement its grip on the country's riches.
In the process Russia's civil society says the vital work it does is gradually being strangled.
"The situation is getting more difficult," said Chikov, who has spent 15 years working in human rights.
"Every human rights activist can be put in prison at any moment," he said.
AFP
