American Charities Protest Plan to Restrict Foreign Nonprofit Groups in Russia

American nonprofit and advocacy groups are putting pressure on Russian lawmakers — including enlisting help from Congress — to persuade them to back down from legislation that would increase state control over nongovernmental organizations.

The legislation was introduced by Russian deputies who said they wanted to ensure that nonprofit organizations were not fronts for criminal or extremist activities. “The main intent of this is to fight against terrorism,” says Yevgeniy Khorishko, press attaché at the Russian Embassy in Washington. He said that money from outside Russia had gone to terrorists in the war-ravaged republic of Chechnya. “We want to know who is working in our country, what kind of organization.”

But the draft law, approved by Russia’s lower house of Parliament, or Duma, last month, has sparked an outcry from both international and Russian groups, which say it would force some foreign organizations to shut down, excessively regulate domestic groups, and roll back efforts to expand democracy in the country.

“There’s been incredible advocacy [against the proposals] and I don’t see that stopping,” says Leonard Benardo, regional director for Russia at the Open Society Institute, in New York, the grant-making organization founded by the financier George Soros. “I see it only escalating.”

The Open Society Institute — which has an office in Moscow and provides money to cultural, educational, advocacy, and other groups in Russia — is one of 11 American nonprofit groups, foundations, and think tanks that sent a letter last week to Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Sen. Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the committee; and Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Committee on International Relations.

It asks them to protest to the Duma, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and heads of the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries. “The law would give the Russian government such tight control over public associations that it would likely paralyze civil society,” the letter says.

Problems for Charities

The legislation, which will have three more readings in Parliament before going to President Putin for his signature, would require organizations to re-register with the government under stricter rules and set up procedures for monitoring their activities and spending. It would also bar foreign groups from setting up offices in Russia. Instead, they would have to register as Russian organizations — under a legal status that some groups say would effectively force them to close.

“Our office would no longer be able to exist essentially,” says Diederik Lohman, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, in New York. The new legal status requires organizations to have members with certain rights and responsibilities, a standard that Human Rights Watch would not meet, he says.

The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, in Washington, says foundations in the United States and elsewhere would also have a hard time qualifying for the new legal status since they are not set up as membership organizations.

Natalia Bourjaily, a vice president at the center, says the proposals would also make it harder for foundations or nonprofit groups to send money to their Russian counterparts because the transactions would be subject to existing rules covering grants by foreign organizations to Russian groups.

President Bush and other administration officials have raised concerns with their Russian counterparts.

Mr. Khorishko says he cannot predict whether deputies will amend the proposals. “They’re listening, but it’s up to them to decide,” he said.