Russia’s lower house of parliament on Friday approved a controversial bill that brands NGOs receiving funding from abroad as “foreign agents”, a law activists fear the Kremlin will use to target critics.
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 reading also sailed through.
A breach of the law by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would be punishable by hefty fines or jail time.
The deputies also passed another controversial 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.
Both bills are almost certain to be approved by the upper house before being signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, who last year accused the US State Department of funding protests against him.
The bills are seen by many analysts as setting up a legal infrastructure for a crackdown on the opposition.
Critics have argued that the term “foreign agent” implies spying for a foreign government and would harm the image of many human rights and environmental groups working in Russia.
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.
Opposition deputy Ilya Ponomarev of the Just Russia party ridiculed the bill, saying it had made him a foreign agent because of his efforts to help the victims of last weekend’s devastating floods in southern Russia.
“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,” he added.
Adopting this law is not right, it is aimed at creating a schism in society.”
Putin on Tuesday voiced support for both bills, promising more money to the NGOs from the state budget and saying that libel should not incur jail time, as the lawmakers had initially proposed.
Opposition deputies say that the libel bill, which was introduced just days ago, effectively “outlaws dissent” in the country. It especially singles out libel against judges, prosecutors and investigators.
The Russian and Chinese strongmen can continue to restrict access to information, but this only increases the thirst for freedom. Indeed, as long as people can read, see, hear, and speak, they will learn the truth of how others live in the world.
The steamroller of the information age has been heading to greet these totalitarian regimes for decades now. It has momentum. There is no stopping it.
The relentless efforts to do so merely add to the pent-up anger and frustration of the people. And their government has yet to see what is there already.
Yes, it can raid their homes and their offices; it can arrest them on bogus charges; it can torture them. But these measures only fan the fires of freedom. And these fires will not go out by killing the people in whose chests they are burning.
Already there are plenty of Nathan Hales in Russia and China whose only regret is that they have but one life to give for freedom in their country.
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