Foreign Agents in Russia - Doria

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dominantly pejorative character as the laws are enlisted as a current trend damaging and threatening
to the Russian civil society and democracy. This idea was represented for example in cases when
the Federal Council took these legal issues under evaluation due to their public critique and in cases
where different Russian and foreign facets have either criticized or expressed their concerns to these
issues. A representative of the group of HROs complaining to the European court of human rights
stated that the new laws – the NKO law included – were not only an issue of pressure against NKOs
but also a way to the destruction of civil society, human rights, environmental and educational
NKOs in Russia (Ria 2013p1). Hence the meaning of foreign agents is politicized even further to be
considered as one of the increasingly repressing political practices of Russia. Also the application of
the foreign agent stipulations was often accused for allowing extra juridical interpretations of what
is political activity and the law enforcement making inspections were accused of committing
brutalities in their operations (Ria 2013e2).
The appeals of NKOs to abroad echoed often as the high statesmen of Germany (Ria
2013q1), Britain (Ria 2012q), Georgia (Ria 2012r) the United States (2012d) and the European
Union (Ria 2013r1) expressed their concern of the effects the new NKO law has on Russian civil
society and human rights development. There was no states or international groups officially
declaring their support to the Russian foreign agent policy except the Chinese who according to
members of the Russian government expressed their interest in following the Russian policy (Ria
2013k1).
A commissar of The European Commission Nils Muižnieks noted that the transparency and
accountability to the society of NKOs are understandable demands but the using of the term foreign
agent linked to the broad definition of political activities is generally concerning (Ria 2013r1).
Muižnieks states that foreign agents term in Russian context is very negative and in practice the
inspections to recognize the foreign agents have been paralyzing the work of NKOs. Addingly he
notes that in the European Court of Human Rights all the representatives of member countries are
referred to as agents except the Russian representative who is referred to as the commissioner.
According to Muižnieks this is no coincidence. (Ria 2013s1.) Muižnieks' example of the Russian
representative in the European court not referred to as an agent like other representatives but as the
commissioner suggests that given the right to decide about it the Russian officials would not use the
term agent on themselves even in the context where their peers refer to themselves as agents. The
term agent has not been the preferable word for a representative even in this context. Moreover
even considering the statement of the Chinese interest in the foreign agent law, the foreign critique
against the referring of NKOs as foreign agents supports the negative connotation of foreign agents
– it is portrayed as a repressing term that does not bring good to the bearer of the label.
As the film Anatomy of Protest 2 and the discussion it stirred (Ria 2012k) reveals, there are