Russia's GOLOS-URAL NGO registered as foreign agent

Russia’s Justice Ministry has included in the list of foreign agents the non-governmental inter-regional public fund for the promotion of civil society GOLOS-URAL.
"That the aforesaid entity fits in with the definition of a non-governmental organization performing the functions of a foreign agent was established by the Justice Ministry’s office in the Chelyabinsk Region as a result of an unscheduled check of documents," the ministry’s press-service said.

Last June, the Justice Ministry included the association of non-governmental organizations in defense of voters’ rights Golos in the list of foreign agents. The decision relied on effective court resolutions confirming that Golos was involved in political activity and received funding from foreign sources.

The law on NGOs acting as foreign agents was adopted in the summer of 2012. It obliged all organizations involved in political activities and funded from other countries to declare themselves foreign agents in a special register and to mention this status in all of their publications in the Internet and the mass media.

According to the Justice Ministry on January 1, 2013 there were 219,688 non-commercial organizations in Russia (105,000 public organizations, 25,000 religious ones, 87,000 others, 54 political parties and 2,100 their offices, 14 branches of international organizations and foreign non-governmental organizations).

According to July statistics available from the head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov, there are 77 titles on the foreign agents list.