Starting March 26, 2013 procurator\u2019s offices carry out checks of the private charitable establishment ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d. Thousands of copies of documents were requested to be provided, while the admnistration of the organization has spent hours and hours answering the questions about all the events that took place \u201cafter November 20, 2012\u201d, and of course, the sources of financing for them.<\/p>\n
Things which were considered a joke at the beginning, such as the requests of Rospotrebnadzor (Russian consumer watchdog) \u201cto instruimentally measure microclimate and acoustic noises\u201d in the office, after about a month grew into a serious threat. The sum total of all possible claims on eight such violations grew to a potential Rb 500,000-700,000 in penalties (equivalent to about $16,000-22,600) and these cases are to be presented before the courts in the coming days.<\/p>\n
But assistant to the procurator Mr. Dmitry Smirnov didn\u2019t stop at these \u201ccases\u201d, although he admitted off the record that there are no legal violations here, but \u201cthey \u2013 Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of emergency situations \u2013 insist\u201d. In the end he deeply sighed, but nevertheless officially opened administrative cases against ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d.<\/p>\n
After formally following his duty of a procurator, one could expect that he could stop active reprisals against the organization which specializes in defending the rights of victims of discrimination, first of all \u2013 children of Roma people and labor migrants. But the procurator\u2019s office instead decided to continue investigation in a quite unexpected manner. On April 29 checks were intiated against a printing company which published books of Russian fairy tales in Roma language edited by ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d. These books were aimed for Roma children, the authors of the books were intending to help them master reading, righting and coloring (the books feature many illustrations). The content of the books included well-known Russian fairy tales about Turnip, Kolobok, Tower Chamber, Mary and the Bear. It seems that while checking non-government organizations for extremism and the characteristics of \u201cforeign agents\u201d, the procurators couldn\u2019t afford to overlook such suspicious publications. That is why they sent to the printing shop police officers, who urged the printers \u201cto voluntarily handle printed materials published for ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d\u201d.<\/p>\n
What other \u201ccounter-agents\u201d of NGOs risk to face similar checks by the law enforcement agents (though without the slightest legal basis \u2013 as no criminal cases have been opened against these NGOs, which could allow to interrogate all those related to the accused)? Should we be expecting police raids on the railway ticket offices because some organizations \u201csuspected of being foreign agents\u201d could have bought tickets there in order to go to some conference? Or the stationery shops where office supplies were bought by the NGOs now subject to checks? Or probably museums visited by children as part of projects \u201cfinanced from abroad\u201d? We do not know.<\/p>\n