Draft federal law No 233364–4 “On Amendments to Certain Statutes of the Russian Federation” (hereafter referred to as the draft law) aims at bringing order to the mechanisms for state registration of non-profit organisations and improving control in order to ensure that the activities of such organisations conform to Russian law and to their declared aims.
The draft law’s objectives merit support, but the mechanisms proposed for their implementation should correspond more closely to the principles according to which civil society functions. In this regard, the provisions concerning the state’s interaction with non-profit organisations, above all with international and foreign organisations, require clarification.
The draft law proposes registration procedures by which international and foreign non-profit NGOs would be able register only with the organisational and legal status of public organisation, but this does not take into account the fact that many such organisations, in accordance with the laws of foreign states, cannot exist in the form of a public organisation. Registering these organisations as public organisations would place unjustified limitations on the scope of their activities and would infringe on the lawful rights and interests of Russian citizens and legal entitites working with these organisations.
In this regard, it is proposed that procedures be established in accordance with which all international and foreign organisations carrying out activities on Russian territory, regardless of their organisational and legal status, and including their branches, sections and representative offices, are required to inform the competent federal executive agency of the aims and objectives of their activities, the amount of money allocated and received, and also the specific purposes it is spent on, in the form established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
The organisations in question could provide this information as the funds arrive and depending on the spending plans and timetable they have set.
In this regard, the mechanism the draft law proposes for the registration of international and foreign organisations as Russian public organisations is excessive.
One single authorised federal agency should be responsible for registering and getting notification from the organisations in question. The law should ensure that the competent federal agency has the necessary powers, including in the area of ensuring compliance of international and foreign organisations’ activities with their declared aims, including as regards declared amounts of money received and the specific purposes on which the said funds are spent. At the same time, the law should contain provisions that would exclude the possibility of excessive intervention by the competent federal agency in the legitimate activities of international and foreign organisations.
The draft law’s proposal that one single competent federal executive agency be responsible for all state registration deserves support, but the proposed mechanism for registering all other Russian non-profit organisations requires clarification. This clarification in particular concerns the list of documents required for registration and also the grounds on which registration can be refused.
While there is a need to improve control over the activities of public organisations, a number of the draft law’s provisions setting out the procedures for this control need to be adjusted. For example, article 38 of the Federal Law “On Public Organisations” (point 8, article 2 of the draft law), states that the competent agency responsible for decisions on the state registration of public organisations can exercise control over the spending of public organisations’ funds and also request financial and economic documents from the managing bodies of public organisations. These control powers of the competent federal agency should, it seems, be limited to the power to check that the activities of public organisations correspond to their declared objectives.
In the interests of avoiding overlapping functions, it would be expedient to also clarify the powers of the federal executive agencies responsible for financial and tax control as concerns the exercise of control to ensure that the spending of financial resources by international and foreign non-profit organisations is in keeping with their declared aims.
Legal entities (public associations and other non-profit organisations) and private individuals receiving financial resources from international and foreign organisations and also from foreign citizens on a gratuitous basis should inform the competent agency of this fact according to the procedures set out by the Government of the Russian Federation. At the same time, public associations that are not legal entities should be exempted from the requirement to inform the state authorities of their creation and the start of their activities. This requirement is excessive.
Liability should be established for Russian legal entities and private individuals who avoid informing the competent agency of the fact that they are using funds received from international and foreign organisations in their activities.
The transition provisions should establish that foreign non-profit non-governmental organisations (organisations whose founders are foreign citizens, stateless persons, foreign non-profit non-governmental organisations and organisational subdivisions – organisations, sections, branches and (or) representative offices of foreign non-profit non-governmental organisations) and the representative offices of international organisations registered as legal entities, carrying out activities on Russian Federation territory on the day the federal law comes into force should undertake the registration procedures within a certain deadline (for example within six months).
Article 1 of the draft law is a proposed addition to point 4, article 8 of the Russian Federation Law “On Closed Administrative-Territorial Entities”, according to which the creation and activity of non-profit organisations founded by foreign non-profit non-governmental organisations and the organisational subdivisions and sections of foreign non-profit non-governmental organisations are prohibited on the territory of closed administrative territorial entities.
Making this addition to article 8 is unjustified because the article in question establishes the particularities of privatisation and the conclusion of other deals involving real estate on the territory of closed administrative-territorial entities and also sets out the procedures for the creation on the territory of closed administrative-territorial entities organisations with foreign investment.
This addition should be either made as a separate article or be made to article 3 of the above-mentioned Law.
Taking into account the above comments and proposals, the draft law requires considerable reworking.