ST. PETERSBURG, June 26. /TASS/. Russia had to take drastic measures in terms of regulating the activities of non-profit organizations due to their gross interference into the country’s internal affairs, Russian Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko said speaking at the session "Non-profit organization without borders" at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

"Unfortunately, today international political games have come to the fore, which have erased the boundaries of what is permitted in matters of internal sovereignty of the state," he stressed.

"For many years, we cultivated in ourselves, in the country, respect for Western legal ideas, considered their values more authoritative than our own. We minimized the invaluable historical experience of domestic law and did not particularly stress its importance for society, and were even more embarrassed to put it on the equal level with Western law," Sviridenko noted.

As a result, foreign citizens and organizations received the opportunity to act as founders of Russian NPOs and open branches and representative offices of foreign NPOs across the country, he said.

As the Deputy Justice Minister noted, foreign citizens and entities "used these opportunities in an attempt to grossly interfere with the legal awareness of our youth in socially significant areas of life."

"The state had to urgently take decisive, effective measures to protect national interests and sovereignty," the Deputy Justice Minister said. In particular Russia introduced the institution of foreign agents, organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable, he added.

According to him, the creation of NPOs with foreign assistance to work in the fields of education, culture, environmental protection and other areas "to a certain extent was a cover for the West."

"In reality, under this plausible pretext, multibillion-dollar investments were poured in, which, as it turned out, were aimed mainly at undermining national security and destabilizing the socio-political situation in the Russian Federation," he stated.

According to Sviridenko, in 2022 alone, more than 9,000 NPOs received foreign assistance of about 70 billion rubles ($784 mln). In 2023, 8,000 NPOs received 78 billion rubles ($869 mln).

"And these are only figures for the non-profit sector. I do not give figures for individuals or commercial organizations. The funding there is quite significant," Sviridenko added.

TASS is the general information partner of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.