Following Moscow’s December 25 decision on the inclusion of the Sakharov centre in the country’s “Foreign Agents Registry,” the EU called Russia to suspend the practice of branding country’s NGOs as “foreign agents” as it affects the fundamental freedoms of association and expression, a spokesperson of High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said in a statement.
“The latest decision by the Russian Ministry of Justice on 25 December to forcibly include the Sakharov centre as well as two other regional NGOs in the so called ‘Foreign Agents Registry’ confirms continued pressure on Russian civil society and human rights organisations,” the statement said.
“With this latest decision the number of Russian NGOs labelled as ‘foreign agents’ has increased to a total of twenty-four,” it added.
“These developments affect the state of fundamental freedoms of association and expression in Russia,” the spokesperson said.
“We expect that the Russian government will suspend the practice of branding Russian NGOs as ‘foreign agents’, comply with its international obligations and apply the international legal standards,” the statement added.
