MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma passed a bill barring Russian citizens from participation in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) abroad. The bill also regulates control over money transfers to Russia from a number of countries, as well as all non-profit organizations’ (nonprofits) money and property acquisition and spending operations.

The law prohibits "participating in a foreign or international NGO outside Russian territory for Russian citizens, people without citizenship permanently residing in Russia, and Russian companies."

It also introduces additional grounds for deeming an NGO undesirable: the mediation in monetary or property operations with another undesirable organization carried out "for activities that threaten Russia’s constitutional order, defense or security."

The law also stipulates that the Federal Financial Monitoring Service will track all money transfers to citizens and companies coming from a certain list of countries.

The list of such countries will be classified and will be disclosed to banks in accordance with a procedure defined by the Financial Monitoring Service in agreement with the Central Bank of Russia. This norm is expected to enter into effect on October 1, 2021.

Tightening NPO accounting

Besides, the law changes the accounting rules on the acquisition and spending of funds for non-profit organizations. Currently, nonprofits’ operations are subjected to supervision, if the transaction sum is equal or above 100,000 rubles ($1,386). Under the new law, any operation on the acquisition or spending of funds or other property will be subjected to obligatory supervision. The exemptions are nonprofits that are state agencies, state corporations or companies, public legal companies, consumer cooperatives, or municipal educational entities. In addition, an exception was made for homeowner associations, garden partnerships and employers’ associations.