Varvara Pakhomenko: MoJ withdraws registration of Russian ICG's Office not for political grounds

At present, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has no reasons to believe that the decision of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to withdraw registration of the Russian ICG's Office had been made for political grounds. This was announced by Varvara Pakhomenko, an ICG expert.

Let us remind you that on June 23, the Russian MoJ notified the Russian ICG's Office of withdrawal of its registration and offered it to get re-registered as an affiliate. The Moscow ICG's has stated that they intend to fulfil those recommendations to maintain its presence and continue to operate in Russia.

"The ICG has operated in Russia as a representative office, and we were invited to get re-registered as an affiliate. In its letter, the MoJ motivates the withdrawal of our registration by the excess of charter power in connection with conducting of independent research. At present, we have no reason to believe that the MoJ's decision was politically motivated. We hope that this is standard technical requirements and we will fulfil all the requirements," Varvara Pakhomenko commented on the MoJ's decision to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on June 27.