Russia’s lower house of parliament on Friday approved a controversial bill that brands as “foreign agents” non-governmental organisations who receive funding from abroad.
The legislation, condemned by both the European Union and Washington, was passed by the State Duma with 374 votes in favour, three against and one abstention in the third and final reading — just minutes after the second one.
A breach of the law would be punishable by hefty fines or jail time.
The deputies also passed a law making libel or slander a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to 5 million rubles ($152,000), voting 238 in favour to 91 against. Communist lawmakers then staged a walkout.
The bills are almost certain to be approved by the upper house before being signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
Putin has accused the US State Department of funding the winter protests that erupted against his return for a third term.
The final two readings of the hugely contentious NGO bill were rushed through the largely pro-Putin chamber on the final day of its spring-summer session, despite protests from both Russian and Western rights groups.
A group of pro-Kremlin organisations launched an online petition in support of the bill, saying no one from abroad had the right to decide Russia’s fate.
But opposition deputy Ilya Ponomarev, speaking ahead of the vote, said the law requires constant checks and “leads to a devaluation of volunteer work” and “discredits the idea of civil activity as a whole”.
Ponomarev, of the opposition A Just Russia faction, said the bill made him a foreign agent because of his efforts to help the victims of last weekend’s devastating floods in southern Russia, for he had taken foreign donations.
“I have for sure become a foreign agent as I gathered donations for Krymsk and 1,000 people sent money from abroad,” he told the Duma.
“The law is one step towards the degradation of civil society and aimed at setting citizens against each other. Adopting this law is not right, it is aimed at creating a schism in society.”
