MOSOCW, April 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the country’s authorities will prevent non-governmental organizations operating in its territory from being used for destructive purposes, the way it happened in Ukraine.
“I would like to emphasize one fundamental idea: one should clearly distinguish between legal opposition activities, which exist in any democratic state, and extremism, which relies on hatred and fanning of inter-ethnic and social discord and on the denial of law and the Constitution,” Putin said at a board meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday.
Putin called for a clear distinction between civilised criticism of the authorities and the servicing of other countries’ national interests to the detriment of one’s country.”
Putin said that “modern Russian legislation creates every conditions for the transparent, free activity of non-governmental and public organizations.”
“But we shall never let them be used for destructive purposes,” Putin said. “This is precisely what happened in Ukraine, where non-governmental organizations were used as a channel to fund nationalist and neo-Nazi structures and militants who have become the main striking force of a government coup,” Putin said.