Russia: New law requires foreign funded NGO's to register as foreign agents

  Human Rights groups in Russia are quite critical of what they call the "foreign agents" bill. The head of  Russia's oldest non-governmental organization The Moscow Helsinki group said that as soon as the bill is passed her organization will not accept foreign grants.
    Lyudmila Alekseeva head of the group said that they would be forced to reduce staff and the number of their projects. She said that with the new law some NGO's will be doomed as Russian donations will not be sufficient to support them. The Moscow-Helsinki group survived even through Soviet repression.
   Memorial another NGO said that the aim of the legislation was to label government opponents "as enemy hirelings". Another NGO the Committee Against Torture vowed not to register as a foreign agent unless forced to do so by a court.
  The bill has caused consternation abroad. A group of  UN experts called on the Russian parliament not to pass the "foreign agents bill". For more see this article.