The law on nongovernmental organizations on whose adoption the European Union insists frees the NGOs from state control, journalist Ilia Kiselev stated in IPN’s public debate “Why did conditions for receiving EU macro-financial assistance become an apple of discord?”.

According to him, the controversial law exempts the NGOs from the presentation of any reports to declare the received foreign assistance and the spent funds, allowing this way the NGOs to finance and to influence political parties.

“I like more the Russian variant, which provides that if a political organization gets assistance from abroad, this is obliged to declare it and to attribute the status of “foreign agent” to itself so that everyone knows who they have to deal with. This is a method of control over the activity of nongovernmental organizations,” stated Ilia Kiselev.

He reiterated that the status of “foreign agent” exists in the U.S. too. Its introduction in Russia runs counter to the absolutely mistaken conception of the majority, that this is a sign of the authoritarian state power,” concluded the journalist.

It should be noted that the law on NGOs was given a first reading by Parliament two years ago, but its final adoption is late. The EU insists on the passing of this bill, but the Party of Socialists, the President and the Prime Minister are categorically against.

The public debate “Why did conditions for receiving EU macro-financial assistance become an apple of discord?” was held in the framework of the project “Overcoming stereotypes of European integration through communication” that is implemented by IPN with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation.