"Open Russia" recognized as unwanted organization on eve of mass actions

On April 27, the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) included three organizations - the "Open Russia" (UK), the "Institute of Contemporary Russia" (USA), and the public network movement "Open Russia" (UK) - in the list of foreign and international NGOs which activities were recognized as undesirable within the territory of Russia. This was reported by the statement posted on the Russian MoJ's website.

The General Prosecutor's Office has made the decision to recognize the above-mentioned organizations as undesirable within the territory of Russia, since, according to prosecutors, the above NGOs "carry out special programmes and projects within the territory of the Russian Federation in order to discredit the results of the elections in Russia and to recognize their results as illegitimate."

According to Anastasia Shevchenko, the head of the regional branch of the movement "Open Russia", recognition of the movement as an undesirable organization did not affect the decision of Rostov activists to hold a rally on April 29.

"We have worked and we will continue working. The rally 'Nadoelo' sanctioned earlier by the administration of Rostov will take place, as we planned... In our notification of the rally, we indicated 200 participants. However, we plan that more people will come," said Anastasia Shevchenko as quoted by the "Donnews.ru" on April 27.

Krasnodar activists also intend to take part in the action to be held by the "Open Russia". The administration of Krasnodar has not sanctioned a march, but allowed to hold a rally. The number of participants indicated in the notification is 300 people, the "Yugopolis" reported on April 17.

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