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Russian Civic Chamber official says topic of "foreign agents" NGOs not relevant now

The official considers the legislation on foreign financing too liberal
Alexander Brechalov Artyom Geodakyan/TASS
Alexander Brechalov
© Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Secretary of the Russian Civic Chamber Alexander Brechalov has said that the topic of "foreign agents" non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is not relevant now.

"What are we talking about? More than 4,000 organization receive more than 70 billion rubles of foreign financing here. There are 100 non-commercial organizations - ‘foreign agents’. This is not a relevant topic," Brechalov told journalists on the sidelines of the Community forum.

According to Brechalov, "legislation on NGOs that receive foreign financing is too liberal in Russia."

Law on "foreign agents"

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 latest statistics available from the Justice Ministry, there are currently 86 organizations on the foreign agents list.