Russian lawmakers want to add 12 undesirable agencies to ‘patriotic stop list’

Lawmakers from Russia's parliamentary upper house have proposed adding twelve companies to a "stop list" identifying foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) whose activity is "undesirable" in the country, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Tuesday.

"This list is not exhaustive," Matviyenko told a news conference after the Federation Council's spring session, adding that twelve apparently necessary organisations had been put on the list so far.

Matviyenko confirmed that lawmakers would forward the plan to the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Foreign Ministry at a plenary on Wednesday "to let them assess whether these organisations’ activities comply with the Russian law".

"If these organisations are included in the list of ‘undesirable’ agencies, they can challenge the decision in court," she said, noting that the Federation Council's move to submit the list "does not mean that the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Foreign Ministry will agree with our [senators’] proposal".

Plans to create a patriotic "stop list" of foreign NGOs were revealed on June 24 by Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council upper house International Affairs Committee.

The list is designed to establish procedures for identifying "undesirable" organisations "which by their actions can pose a threat or are already threatening Russia and its national interests", Kosachev told TASS last week, adding that legal decisions on including such bodies fall to "competent public authorities" and not the Federal Assembly.

"But the Federation Council is entitled to give political assessments and we will certainly make these assessments based on the information we have," he said.