(Source: http://world.fedpress.ru)

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law on undesirable foreign and international organizations. The text of the document was published on Saturday, May 23, at the official web-portal of legal information.

The law allows to recognize undesirable the activities of international or foreign non-governmental organization presenting a threat to the fundamentals of the constitutional order of Russia, its defense capacity or security.

The procedure of inclusion of companies into the list of undesirable ones will be performed by the Prosecutor General or his deputies in coordination with the Foreign Ministry of the RF. In addition, according to this law, financial institutions are not allowed to conduct transactions with money or other property from undesirable NGOs. The possibility of exclusion of such organizations from this list is also considered. The activities of organizations such as Human Rights Watch may be prohibited in Russia.

The law on undesirable organizations may affect Carnegie Foundation, the non-governmental international organization for countering corruption Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International monitoring human rights observance. The leaders of a number of the above-mentioned organizations called the law a threat to civil society in Russia. The Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC) also criticized the document. The concern in connection with the adoption of the law was expressed by the Commissioner of Council of Europe for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks.