The passing of the Russian law on NGOs [see my earlier post on this] has stirred up a lot of controversy over the past several months. But, did the international development community and Russian NGOs worry too much too soon? Or not? Here is what the Moscow Times has to say:
Despite sizzling criticism from leading human rights groups, the new law on nongovernmental organizations is not as restrictive as similar legislation adopted by France, Finland and other developed democracies.
What makes it potentially dangerous, however, is a lack of clarity over how it will be enforced at a time when the Kremlin is methodically tightening its grip on every area of public life and courts are not generally viewed as independent.
These two paragraphs capture the dual nature of the conflict surrounding the law. The Russian NGO law is less restrictive than similar laws in other countries, as the article so carefully details. Yet, the open-ended wording of the actual law and notoriously poor enforcement of laws in Russia can make it a lot more restrictive in reality than it is on paper. It is for these reasons that its hard to make conclusive predictions at this point as to the effect the law will have on the ability of NGOs to operate freely. Lets wait and see?
Published Date: February 15, 2006