Russian Foreign Agent Law takes roots in Georgia and Hungary

The Russian-style Foreign Agent Law now proliferates in other countries, which justify it on the grounds that it provides transparency for foreign funding and influence. In reality, these laws are used to control and constrict civil society. They are carried out in a climate of increasing repression of civil society, including NGOs, human rights activists, independent media outlets and election observers, and often targeting civil society supported by the US and Europe

 

Author: Miroslava Simonovska

 

In 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on foreign agents. Twelve years later, proxy versions of these laws are introduced in Georgia and Hungary against critical voices that they are detrimental to free expression and association, but also that they are a potential tool for silencing critical thinking.

The Russian Foreign Agent Law obliges all non-governmental organizations that receive financial resources from abroad and engage in political activities to register with the Russian Ministry of Justice as “foreign agents.” This term “foreign agents” is charged and is closely associated with espionage and betrayal.

This summer, Reporters Without Borders alerted that a third of the victims of this law in Russia are the independent media outlets, which are the main target of this legislation. With the help of this law, according to Reporters Without Borders, there is a systematic legal persecution of independent media.

Over the years, new amendments were added to it that narrowed the yoke of control over the entities being targeted.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has analyzed the Ministry of Justice’s blacklists of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” — which are used as tools of censorship — and condemns the stigmatization of independent media as a fifth column, they say.

It stigmatizes and places heavy burdens on organizations that receive foreign funding and conduct activities deemed political by the authorities. The law has already hit hundreds of non-governmental organizations unwilling to register, and its chilling effect is no longer a prediction but a reality. Beginning on June 4, 2014, the Ministry of Justice may register organizations as “foreign agents” without their consent. Russia’s Constitutional Court has found the law to be fundamentally in compliance with the Constitution. However, had the court taken Russia’s international human rights obligations seriously, it would have found the law to be in clear breach, points out the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

The Russian-style Foreign Agent Law now proliferates in other countries, which justify it on the grounds that it provides transparency for foreign funding and influence. In reality, these laws are used to control and constrict civil society. They are carried out in a climate of increasing repression of civil society, including NGOs, human rights activists, independent media outlets and election observers, and often targeting civil society supported by the US and Europe.

As Human Rights Watch writes, the notion of “political activity” in these laws can involve anything from advocacy, research, legal or policy analysis, and other activities aimed at influencing public policy. This also includes organizing public debates, events, rallies and demonstrations. Other activities include conducting or participating in election monitoring; carrying out public opinion surveys; disseminating legal or expert opinions; monitoring the work of government institutions; and a whole host of legitimate civil society activities.

 

Russian roots in the case of Georgia

The law on foreign agents from Russia has also taken root in Georgia. Georgia’s new legal decision reflects growing Russian influence in the country and has drawn criticism from the US and the EU, which fear it could harm the country’s democratic development.

The Foreign Agent Law in Georgia demands NGOs that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors register as organizations “bearing the interests of a foreign power.” In Georgia, this means that 26 thousand NGOs are affected.

Georgia’s civil society organizations receive more than 90 percent of their funding from abroad. The deadline to register as foreign agents was September 1, and if they don’t they face a $9.300 fine.

The law was introduced by the ruling party in Georgia in April this year, after its unsuccessful public introduction in 2023. On May 17, it passed through Parliament’s filter, with 84 votes in favor and almost all opposition MPs abstaining. Within two weeks, the parliamentary majority overrode the veto put on the law by President Salome Zourabichvili, who has no party affiliation. Hundreds of NGOs in Georgia have since pledged not to comply with the law, and opposition lawmakers say they will challenge it in court.

Analysts are adamant that requiring NGOs in Georgia to register as foreign agents is an attempt to silence dissenting voices in the country ahead of elections scheduled for October 26, potentially bringing Georgia closer to Russia. The law allows to destroy the power of civil society, according to some activists.

Since businessman and politician Bidzina Ivanishvili who experts say is a key figure behind the law, formed the party that proposed it in 2012, this party has advocated for policies that would bring Tbilsi closer to Moscow. Ivanishvili has strong economic and political ties to Russia. Russia has expressed support for Georgia’s law, though Russian President Vladimir Putin says he did not influence its passage. However, Russia stands to benefit from Georgia’s increasing isolation from the EU and NATO, writes the Council on Foreign Relations.

 

Hungary on trial for similar law

The European Commission has taken Hungary to court over its foreign influence laws, which critics have regarded as a tool to silence opposition voices. The European Commission claims this law violates fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression.

This law named the “Sovereignty Protection Act” is rumored to be related to Russian legislation. It envisages a government body assisted by the Hungarian secret services, with the power to gather information on foreign-funded organizations. Although Hungary justifies this legal solution to criminalize foreign financing of election campaigns, the European Commission believes the level of power granted to the new body disproportionately affects civil society organizations, media and journalists. It is also mentioned that it violates the right to personal and family life, the right to expression and the right to association.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović demanded that the Hungarian government withdraw the law, stating that it poses a significant risk to human rights and should be rejected. She wrote at the time that if the law passed, which it eventually did, it would equip Hungary’s government with even more opportunities to silence and stigmatize independent voices and opponents.

Several former Soviet republics have introduced foreign agent laws that, according to some publications, directly borrow the language used in the legal text from Russia. In April, Kyrgyzstan passed a law targeting foreign-funded NGOs. There are similar laws in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

However, experts are adamant the Russian law is one of the most restrictive of them all. As a result of it, a third of NGOs in Russia closed down in the first two years after its adoption in 2012. In 2022, Russia passed a law requiring all NGOs and individuals labeled as foreign agents to identify themselves as such in public or media reports.

The Russian government has a very detailed list of people it claims are linked to foreign agents, who are barred from public life, civil society and education. In October 2023, Russia detained Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva under this law. She was released 11 months later in a prisoner swap.

 

 

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