Activists of SFD NGOs state incessant pressure by authorities

The persecution campaign against activists of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of the Southern Federal District (SFD) continued in December with the inclusion of the Krasnodar Regional Organization of Higher School Graduates into the register of "foreign agents", and accusation of extremism of the chairman of the Adygea's branch of the Nature Conservation Society. Local activists assert that the authorities' pressure on them is incessant.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 25, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Russia reported the entry into the register of "foreign agents" of three organizations, including the Krasnodar Regional Organization of Higher School Graduates.

In Adygea, Valery Brinikh, the chairman of the local branch of the All-Russian Nature Conservation Society, is accused of inciting interethnic hatred. According to the prosecutor's office, he made calls to extremism in his article entitled "Silence of the Lambs", dedicated to environmental violations.

One more NGO of the Krasnodar Territory – the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch) – is under threat of liquidation. The liquidation decision was made by the Supreme Court (SC) of Adygea on October 24; it was appealed to the Russia's SC.

NGO activists in Russia are drawn into political processes, even if their activities are not directly related to politics, said Mikhail Savva, Director of Grant Programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.