​Russia Adds Transparency International To Foreign Agents List

The Russian Justice Ministry has added Transparency International Russia to its list of organizations designated as "foreign agents."

The ministry's announcement on April 7 brought the number of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations listed as foreign agents to 50.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law in 2012 that requires NGOs that receive foreign funding and are deemed to be engaged in political activities to register as organizations "performing the functions of a foreign agent."

Rights activists, Kremlin critics, and Western governments say the designation deliberately and unfairly suggests the groups are involved in espionage.

They see it as part of a campaign to silence dissent and rein in civil society during Putin's third presidential term.

Also on April 7, a court in the Volga region city of Samara ordered a local NGO, the Ecological Training Center, to pay a 150,000 rubles ($2,750) fine for refusal to register as a foreign agent.

Source: rferl.org