Opinion: Kremlin Moves ‘Paralyze’ Russian Nonprofits

A series of raids by Russian authorities on the offices of human rights, environmental, and other organizations has “effectively paralyzed” the country’s nonprofit sector, a Russian journalist writes in the International Herald Tribune.

Prosecutors, tax police, and other enforcement agencies searched at least 100 organizations last week, and hundreds more raids are expected, writes Masha Gessen, director of Radio Liberty’s Russian Service and the author of a biography of President Vladimir Putin. Inspectors have demanded stacks of financial records but also “sifted through the trash and taken apart air-conditioners,” she says.

Ms. Gessen predicts that activist organizations will be shut down and their leaders prosecuted as Russia implements laws that restrict foreign financial support of nonprofit groups and expand the legal definition of treason.