Summary
In the year since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in May 2012, the Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on civil society unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history. The authorities have introduced a series of restrictive laws, harassed, intimidated, and in several cases imprisoned political activists, interfered in the work of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and sought to cast government critics as clandestine enemies, thereby threatening the viability of Russia’s civil society.
This report analyzes the new laws – including the so-called “foreign agents” law, the treason law, the “Dima Yakovlev law,” and the assembly law – and documents how they have been implemented to date. It describes how some of the laws service the Kremlin’s strategy to conflate the promotion of human rights and government accountability with incursions on state sovereignty. Finally, it documents the rhetoric of officials and pro-Kremlin media that represents government critics as dangerous enemies.
Two of the new laws – the “foreign agents” law and the “Dima Yakovlev law” – clearly seek to limit, or even end, independent advocacy and other NGO work by placing new, draconian limits on association with foreigners and foreign funding. The former, a new law regulating NGOs, requires, among other things, organizations that receive foreign funding and supposedly engage in “political activities” to register as “foreign agents.” The “Dima Yakovlev law,” informally named after a Russian toddler who died in the United States several months after he was adopted by an American family, essentially bans funding emanating from the United States for “political” NGO activity, and bans NGOs whose work is “directed against Russia’s interests.” A third law, the treason law, expands the legal definition of treason in ways that could criminalize involvement in international human rights advocacy.
As these laws were being debated and adopted, pro-government media outlets ran propaganda campaigns targeting prominent nongovernmental groups, accusing them of promoting Western interests in exchange for funding.
As this report went to press, the government was implementing a nationwide campaign of intrusive government inspections of NGOs. The inspections were prompted by the “foreign agents” law and appeared aimed, at minimum, to intimidate civil society activists. The inspections could potentially be used to force some organizations to either end certain types of activities or close altogether.
In addition, libel, decriminalized at the end of Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency, was recriminalized seven months later, and Internet content has been subjected to new legal restrictions. A new assembly law imposes limits on public demonstrations and imposes serious, drastic fines on those who violate the law.
The new laws, most of them sponsored by the ruling United Russia party, were adopted at breakneck speed: the assembly law, for example, entered into force just 18 days after the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, began debating it.
Taken together, the laws and government actions described in this report violate Russia’s international legal obligations to protect freedom of association, expression, and assembly and threaten the viability of Russia’s vibrant civil society.
The “foreign agents” law expanded already extensive and intrusive state control over organizations that receive foreign funding by setting out additional reporting requirements and providing for additional inspections by government bodies. It equates receiving any foreign funding with being an agent of foreign interests. Its definition of “political activities” includes acts that are a routine part of many NGOs’ advocacy work, such as advocating for policy changes or trying to influence public opinion. The law forces such organizations to state clearly in their published materials that they are “foreign agents.” Failure to comply with the law triggers stiff fines and even prison terms.
The term “foreign agent” in Russia is ubiquitously understood as spy or traitor, and it is difficult to avoid the impression that by adopting this law, Russian authorities sought to discredit and demonize certain civil society groups that accept foreign funding.
The treason law broadened the definition of treason by adding the provision of “consultative or other assistance to a foreign state, an international or foreign organization … in activities against the security of the Russian Federation” to the list of actions that can constitute state treason. This new definition leaves broad room for officials to arbitrarily interpret and selectively apply it against individuals engaged in routine discussions with foreign counterparts or presenting human rights reports at international conferences. The United Nations Committee Against Torture, for example, said the law could be interpreted as prohibiting the sharing of information on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation with the UN. Although Human Rights Watch is not aware of any prosecutions under the new definition, the mere possibility that the law will at some point be applied to silence or retaliate against critics is enough to keep civil society groups, and especially human rights organizations, in a constant state of anxiety. For this reason some human rights defenders have dubbed the law “the sword of Damocles.”
The new public assembly law increases the maximum penalty for violating rules regulating protests from 5,000 rubles (approximately US$165) to 300,000 rubles ($9,700), a prohibitive amount given the average Russian monthly income of 26,489 rubles ($880). The law also banned, among other things, persons who have been prosecuted twice or more in one year for violating laws governing public events from organizing protests.
Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that several of the law’s provisions were unconstitutional, and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe found that the amendments represent “a step backward for the protection of freedom of assembly” and urged Russia to repeal or revise key provisions.
A new law regulating Internet content creates a federal register of websites that host child pornography images, narcotics-related content, and information that “incites people to commit suicide.” Several government agencies are authorized to submit websites for the registry without a court order.
Once a website is on the registry, content-hosting providers have 24 hours to notify the website owner to remove the prohibited content. The website owner is given another 24 hours to comply. If the website owner fails to take down the banned content, Internet service providers must restrict access to the website within 24 hours.
The law’s stated goal is protecting children, but its definitions of prohibited material are overly broad, giving government agencies wide discretion to ban content.
For example, in January 2013 the government blocked one of Russia’s most widely read blogs because it contained a photograph of Tibetan independence activists performing self-immolation. The blog was reactivated after the blogger removed the photographs.
Regional authorities in Russia have also used the protection of children as a pretext to justify discriminatory laws banning “propaganda for homosexuality.” A similar federal draft law of the same type successfully passed its first reading in the Duma.
Two cases provide further examples of Russia’s waning commitment to its international human rights obligations. The first case is that of the globally renowned prosecution of members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, two of whom are serving out two-year prison terms on incitement of religious hatred charges for a 40-second political stunt in a Moscow cathedral that criticized Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church’s close relationship with the Kremlin.
The second relates to Leonid Razvozzhaev, a political activist charged with organizing mass riots during a May 2012 demonstration. Razvozzhaev went missing in Ukraine as he stepped outside a partner organization of the UN high commissioner for refugees’ office to take a break during an asylum interview. Several days later he reappeared in custody in Russia. Razvozzhaev appears to have been forcibly disappeared and was forced to sign a confession under duress while in incommunicado detention. Razvozzhaev is in custody awaiting trial in Russia.
The Russian government should end the crackdown on civil society and instead foster an environment in which civil society can thrive. It should repeal new, overly restrictive legal provisions and follow recommendations set out by such intergovernmental organizations as the Council of Europe and the UN to bring legislation and practices into line with Russia’s commitments to these institutions. Russia’s international partners should use every opportunity to remind the government to do so.
