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Russia Eases Its Plans to Restrict Foreign NGOs

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From Reuters

Russia’s parliament, following President Vladimir V. Putin’s lead, softened a bill on nongovernmental organizations Wednesday, easing proposed curbs on foreign groups but keeping them for local charities and rights bodies.

The original draft law proposing restrictions on NGO activities had passed a first reading by the State Duma last month amid Kremlin fears that NGOs could be used as fronts to foment unrest in Russia like that in Ukraine and Georgia in recent years.

The original bill’s main goal was to stop Western-oriented pro-democracy groups from getting cash from abroad. It stirred an outcry in the West, where NGOs, backed by their nations’ governments, said the proposed legislation would make their operations in Russia impossible. The organizations accused the Kremlin of trying to curtail democracy.

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The original bill would have required a system of official registration with the authorities that foreign nongovernmental organizations said was incompatible with their charters. It had also included financial screening of NGO accounts.

Pressed by the United States and Western Europe, Putin stepped in with amendments lifting most of the proposed restrictions on foreign NGOs, while leaving similar Russian organizations under tough government control.

“The bill imposes control over financial resources arriving through foreign and international organizations” to Russian bodies, said Vladimir Katrenko, a deputy Duma speaker from the majority party United Russia, before the vote.

The lower house voted 376 to 10 to approve Putin’s amendments. The bill faces a third technical reading Friday and has to be approved by the upper chamber, the Federation Council, before it can be signed into law by Putin.

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