Russia’s law on undesirable foreign NGOs and the ethics of international activism
The decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign a bill that allows “authorities
to prosecute foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or firms
designated as ‘undesirable’ on national security grounds” is bound to receive a hostile reception in the West. Already Amnesty International” declared that the new law will “snatch away the space for dissenting views and independent civil society activism,” while Human Rights Watch more hysterically stated that the law aims at “squeezing the very life out of Russian civil society,” and the State Department harshly characterized it in a characteristically over the top fashion “as
a further example of the Russian government’s growing crackdown on
independent voices and intentional steps to isolate the Russian people
from the world.”
