Given recent statements by the Russian deputy procurator general Alexander Buksman and the earlier comments by the Russian Ministry of justice that large scale checks of non-commercial organizations in Russia, which started in March this year throughout the country, are due to the wish of the state to uncover organizations failing to register as \u201cforeign agents\u201d while getting financial assistance from abroad, it is interesting to analyze the course of these checks on the example of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d.<\/p>\n
These checks of non-commercial organizations are carried out with the participation of various state organizations, including Federal Tax Service, Federal Migration Service, Ministry of emergency situations, police and others. On March 26, 2013 ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d was also visited by similar auditors. District deputy procurator Smirnov, head of the group that checked ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d, presented a letter addressed to the head of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d <\/a>(no name or even the exact title of the director of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d was mentioned in the letter), which reads: \u201cDistrict procurator\u2019s office carries out a check of how the legislation on counteracting extremism coming from public organizations, religious associations and unregistered public and religious associations of destructive and radical nature is observed\u201d.<\/p>\n This official of local procurator\u2019s office was accompanied by a representative of Rospotrebnadzor (Russian consumer watchdog) Mrs. Zabavina, Ministry of emergency situations inspector Mr. Fomin, two police officers from the Chief directorate of Ministry of the interior for Saint Petersburg and the local police station, who expressed their concerns about the licenses for software used by ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d. Police didn\u2019t have any complaints regarding ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d, but Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of emergency situations have made interesting \u201cstatements\u201d which were forwarded to us by the procurator\u2019s office on April 4, 2013. Procurator\u2019s office required explanations regarding these statements to be provided by the administration of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d, but refused to provide us with a copy of these documents. We had to make photos of these documents using a mobile phone. Copies of these documents and our official response are provided as attachments to this report.<\/p>\n Administration of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d categorically rejects all the claims made by the Rospotrebnadzor and most of the claims made by the Ministry of emergency situations. Some of them are simply absurd \u2013 for example, that the door sign at the entrance to ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d doesn\u2019t feature \u201copening hours\u201d of the organization and that this supposedly is in violation of the law on consumer rights adopted in 1992 (although the law concerns only those who provide their services on a paid basis). ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d doesn\u2019t provide paid services. All of the information concerning our opening hours and contact details is provided on our website, as well as \u201cYellow Pages of Saint Petersburg\u201d, which are accessible to people looking for our services. Some of the complaints made by Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of emergency situations \u2013 such as the width of doors, lack of \u201cinstrumental measurements of noise levels\u201d and other potentially hazardous things \u2013 cannot be addressed to ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d because we are renting our office from a business centre.<\/p>\n However, the most important question is the following: what exactly is the connection between checking observation of legislation against extremism, as well as foreign financing, with the above mentioned peculiar subjects? It is also a mystery to us what is the connection between checking foreign financial assistance with the supposed violations of anti-extremist legislation? If, as Mr. Buksman has stated, financial sources of non-commercial organizations are being checked (which, by the way, doesn\u2019t require participation of the Ministry of emergency situations, Rospotrebnadzor and others), why mention \u201cextremism\u201d at all? And as far as Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of emergency situations are concerned, is it correct to distract them from the real problems they have to deal with on a daily basis \u2013 starting from natural disasters to epidemics and noise levels? It is also worth mentioning that non-commercial organizations already provide detailed reports about sources of financing to the Ministry of justice in an orderly manner and no special audits and visits are necessary.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how our colleagues from human rights association \u201cAgora\u201d commented on such a \u201cmixture of genres\u201d concerning the checks initiated by the procurator\u2019s office: \u201cThe statement made by the deputy procurator general implies that a foreign agent could be any organization which receives foreign financing, while the law clearly states that it should also be involved in political activities\u201d. (See: http:\/\/kommersant.ru\/doc\/2162489