14:07, 10 June 2014

"Union of Don Women" listed as "foreign agent" by Russia's Ministry of Justice

Participants of "Union of Don Women" conference, July 2013. Photo: http://www.donwomen.ru

The Regional Public Human Rights Organization "Union of Don Women", which is working in the Rostov Region, has been registered as a non-governmental organization (NGO), acting as a foreign agent, the Russia's Ministry of Justice has reported. In total, the registry currently lists five organizations. The "Union of Don Women" has declared that it will struggle for exclusion from the above register.

Valentina Cherevatenko, the leader of the "Union of Don Women", has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that position of her organization with regards to the register of "foreign agents" was expressed in a special statement.

"We hereby declare that the 'Union of Don Women' is not a foreign agent; it has never been and will never be a foreign agent," says the statement.

The document emphasizes that the Ministry of Justice has forcibly listed the NGO as a foreign agent.

See earlier reports: Court in Novocherkassk rules to recognize "Union of Don Women" as "foreign agent", Witnesses in the case of "Don Women's Union" refute prosecutors' arguments, lawyers say, Novocherkassk court questions leader of "Don Women's Union".