Foreign Agents in Russia - Doria

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their group.
What was interesting in the case of Golos however was not only the aspect of political
activities it was claimed to engage but the financing it was accused and found guilty for. While in
court the defense appealed to the facts that it had refused and returned the Sakharov Prize
Association grant of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee the verdict of being a foreign agent was
given despite of it. Addingly arguments of the foreign funding were defining Golos retrospectively
as the company had not received any foreign funding after the new amendments to the NKO law
were set in force in November 2012 (Ria 2013h). Further the lawyers of Golos also tried to appeal
that the law does not explain how to interpret the concept of "political activity” but the verdict saw
the “Electoral code” developed and proposed by Golos a clear sign of political action. (Echo
2013e.) While in the news articles there was only little details presented on the “Electoral code” of
Golos, the code indicates a practical act which suggests that the current electoral code should be
changed. Considering this with the case of the Soldiers mothers organization where next to the
NKO's legal activities of helping men to avoid conscription the NKO was accused for election
monitoring, one can make the conclusion that criticizing and monitoring of electoral procedures
affects to the public images of electoral commissions and therefore affects public opinion. The
prosecutors statements on Soldier's mothers were reported in Ria Novosti (2013o.):
--- "В ходе проверки установлено, что комитет получает денежные средства из
зарубежных источников из Национального фонда в поддержку демократии
(США)", — говорится в предостережении прокуратуры. Ведомство заявляет,
что за счет этих средств комитет осуществляет политическую деятельность,
нарушая тем самым закон "О некоммерческих организациях". Отмечается, что
комитет ведет собственную статистику "нарушений в период избирательной
кампании и выборов" и собственный подсчет голосов. Ведомство считает, что
комитет солдатских матерей таким образом воздействует, в частности, на
формирование имиджа избирательных комиссий. “ ---
--- "In the audits it was found that the committee receives funds from foreign sources
from the National Endowment for Democracy (USA)," - said the prosecutor's warning.
The (Prosecutor’s) office declares that according to these funds the committee engages
in political activity, thus it violates the law "On non-commercial organizations". It is
noted that the Committee keeps its own statistics on "violations during electoral
campaigns and elections," and its own vote counting. Office finds that the Committee of
Soldiers' Mothers thus operates in particular to formulate the image of electoral