21:35, 21 February 2007

IWPR's office is being searched in North Ossetia

In Vladikavkaz, capital of North Ossetia, the employees of law enforcement bodies are searching the Office of the British Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Valery Dzutsev, acting coordinator of the Institute, has told about it live on air of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio. He has noted that the search is held by members of tax bodies who are presently withdrawing all the documentation and computers.

Mr. Dzutsev has reported that "the non-commercial organization was not registered but prepared a package of documents for registration."

We note here that many actions of Russian authorities in relation to non-governmental non-commercial organizations (NGOs and NCOs) are assessed by public as pressure. The "Caucasian Knot" has reported earlier that in April the authorities have legally toughened the regulation on NGOs, having stated that some of them - for breach of legislation - are under influence of foreign governments.