Pressure on Russia’s civil society – reports on the effects of the NGO laws
Naturvernforbundet has over many years worked closely with Russian environmental organizations. The cooperation has been valuable for both sides on a number of environmental issues, such as preservation of biodiversity in the Barents region, phase out of old nuclear plants and promotion of low carbon development.
The work has at all times faced challenges due to regulations on Russian side, but the situation deteriorated significantly with the new NGO laws that were approved in the Russian Parliament and by the President in 2012. Since 2015 the time and resources spent at meeting and answering to the pressure from Russian authorities have increased in our partner organizations.
Naturvernforbundet has regularly produced reports and short papers on the effects of the NGO laws, in particular on the Foreign Agent law and how it affects environmental organizations.
Reports and updates can be found below:
Naturvernforbundet/Russian Social-Ecological Union 2018: Foreign Agent Law reshaping Russian civil society
Naturvernforbundet 2017: Pressure towards Russian environmental NGOs
Naturvernforbundet 2016: Foreign Agent law: Impact on Russian environmental organizations
Naturvernforbundet 2015: Short status report on law on Foreign Agents and new law on Undesirable organisations
Naturvernforbundet 2014: «Foreign Agents» or Environmental heroes? Legal restrains on Russian environmental NGOs