Foreign Agents in Russia - Doria

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NKOs acting as foreign agents have to publish a biannual report of their activities and carry
out an annual financial statutory audit. The regulation is the same with foreign NKOs but the
traditional Russian NKOs are not subjected to the statutory audit. An additional inspection can be
performed if the NKO acting as foreign agent has 1) ignored the cautions and warnings given by the
authorized administrative body or 2) been accused of extremism activities or 3) been accused of
breaking the Federal law or 4) with the order of the head of the administrative body and prosecutors
demand, an unscheduled audit can be executed. In addition any NKO and the banks they use are
obliged to inform the Justice Ministry about any foreign funding transactions greater than 200,000
rubles (about $7,000), the NKO may receive from foreign sources. The NKOs acting as foreign
agents have to publish biannually a report of their activities in internet or provide the information to
media. For non-foreign agents this obligation is annual. The local authorized administrative bodies
shall annually inform the State Duma on the political activities and the expenditure of funds of
NKOs acting as foreign agents. (Constantplyus.ru)
Non-compliance to the NKO law is criminalized. There are number of penalties defined for
non-compliance of the new NKO law on foreign agents. For not submitting the necessary
information to the responsive state organ will lead to a warning or the imposition of a fine on
organization representative officials - from 10,000 to 30,000 rubles (approximately 235 to 706
euros) and for legal entities (NKOs) - from 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles (approximately 2
350 to 7 060 euros). From the same offence a citizen will get fined from 3000 to 5000 rubles (68-
113 euros). The failure for an NKO acting as a foreign agent to register as a foreign agent will pay
the same fine from 100 to 300 thousand rubles for a legal entities and from 300 thousand to 500
thousand (11 780 euros) rubles for juridical entities. (RIA Novosti 2012a.) Not registering can also
lead to suspension up to six months and the suspension will be indefinitely lifted if the suspended
NKO registers itself as a foreign agent (constantplyus.ru). If a foreign agent NKO publishes
information in media or internet without the label 'foreign agent', it will lead to fines worth of 100-
300 thousand rubles for the person responsible or 300-500 thousand rubles for the juridical person.
If a foreign agent NKO continues its activities despite of decision of halting, then a fine worth of
30-50 thousand rubles fines is given to the executives and worth three to five thousand rubles for
the participants of the organization. (RIA Novosti 2012a.) Spokesman of the Russian Ministry of
Justice stated that an NKO suspended for not abiding the law will be:
“(banned) from holding mass rallies and public events, using bank accounts except for routine
payments, issuing payments to employees, reimbursing losses caused by its activities, as well as the
payment of taxes, dues or fines." (RT 2012c)