Kremlin calls 11 foreign organizations 'undesirable' in Russia
The Prosecutor General's Office (GPO) of the Russian Federation has recognized 11 foreign organizations on the territory of the Russian Federation as undesirable, and is ready to continue this work. A corresponding statement was made by Alexei Zhafyarov, the Deputy Head of the Department for Supervision over the Execution of the Laws on Federal Security, Interethnic Relations, and Countering Extremism and Terrorism in the Prosecutor General's Office, reports RIA Novosti.
"As of today ... the Deputy Prosecutor General has decided to recognize as undesirable the activities of 11 foreign organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Foundation, the American-Russian Foundation for Economic Legal Development, the National Democratic Institute for International Relations, the International Republican Institute and a number of others. We are ready to continue working in this direction," Zhafyarov said at a meeting of the Human Right Council titled “Public Participation in Countering Extremism and Terrorism."
A foreign or international organization that is recognized as undesirable on the territory of Russia cannot create or open branches in the Russian Federation, and must also close existing ones. Additionally, "undesirable" status is fraught with a ban on the dissemination of information materials by the named organization through the media or the Internet. In addition, such an organization cannot conduct various programs or projects in Russia. There are other limitations.