Rights group: NGOs choked in Russia

The executive director of Human Rights Watch said Wednesday he was denied a visa to enter Russia, where he was to present a report accusing the Kremlin of using onerous regulations to block the work of independent activist groups.

Speaking to reporters by telephone from New York, Kenneth Roth said Russian authorities cited "a changing array of technical reasons" for denying the visa. He called the ordeal "an unfortunate illustration of the precise pressures" facing non-governmental organizations in Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it could not comment directly on why Roth had been denied an entry visa.

"Usually a person who is denied a visa knows why," said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters he was not aware of Roth's case, but he urged Russia and other nations not to bar independent rights groups.

"Certainly, we would hope that all countries would be open to scrutiny from civil society groups, including Mr. Roth and including his organization," Casey said.

The report details how new laws have given Russian authorities broad and intrusive powers over non-governmental organizations. It was issued just days after President Vladimir Putin's likely successor suggested that foreign nonprofit groups were spying on Russia.

The comments by First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev suggested that current laws that tighten oversight of organizations ranging from rights activists to media watchdogs would remain in force.

Human Rights Watch said complying with new inspection requirements can be a lengthy and difficult ordeal for such groups and bring their work to a halt. The Federal Registration Service also can shut down a non-governmental organization for repeated violations, it said.

As an example, Human Rights Watch cited the case of a small St. Petersburg-based group, the Center for Enlightenment and Research Programs. Officials petitioned to dissolve the group, accusing it of violating its mandate by conducting "educational" instead of "enlightenment" work and holding events outside St. Petersburg.

They also admonished the group for a publication that characterized police as not having sufficient awareness of the rights of refugees. The case is pending.

Organizations working on rights and other issues in Chechnya, where two wars have been fought against separatist militants since the early 1990s, or those that receive foreign funding are particularly vulnerable, the group said. They have been subjected to inspections for noncompliance with tax codes, software licensing and other regulations, it said.

A Kremlin official authorized to comment on the issue was not immediately available.

The Federal Registration Service had no immediate comment, said spokeswoman Lyubov Mikhailova.

Under Putin, the Kremlin has chafed at criticism of its policies, particularly from the West. Putin himself has defended the 2006 legislation tightening registration requirements for non-governmental organizations as a way to make sure such groups are not controlled by what he calls puppeteers from abroad.

The Kremlin was widely believed to have been worried by mass uprisings in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia that resulted in Western-leaning governments. The government and state media have accused the West of funding those uprisings.

Medvedev, whose victory in a March 2 election is virtually assured because he has Putin's backing, said Western nations were quick to criticize Russia for rules governing non-governmental organizations but were loath to let Russian organizations operate in theirs.

"Try registering one of our NGOs in London — a headache is guaranteed," Medvedev was quoted as saying in an interview with the weekly Itogi.

Russia last month created a new think tank, the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, with offices in New York and Paris, to scrutinize and expose flaws in Western democracies.

___

On the Net:

Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org