US MacArthur Foundation leaves Russia amid legal crackdown

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33625409

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A prominent US-based grant-giving organisation has announced it is closing its Russia office because laws restricting foreign funding make it "impossible" to operate effectively.

The MacArthur Foundation has donated more than $173m (£111m) to Russian civil society projects since 1992.

But Russian MPs have called for it to be deemed "undesirable" and banned under a new law on national security.

The fund says the Russian government clearly regards it as "unwelcome".

Although it regrets its decision to leave, the organisation says it is also concerned about the potential risk to local staff and anyone who receives its funding.

A tool of the West

The MacArthur Foundation now features on a "stop list" of 12 organisations drawn-up by Russian politicians who accuse the groups of working to destabilise Russia and topple President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's leader has previously warned that foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are a tool of hostile Western governments.

Russia's concerns grew last year. It believes foreign-backed NGOs helped stoke the mass protests in Ukraine that led to the ousting of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych.

The MacArthur Foundation has stressed that its activities have been aimed only at benefitting Russian citizens and society.

"The closure is a loss for all civil society," Russian human rights activist Natalya Taubina told the BBC.

Her own NGO, Public Verdict, used MacArthur grants for work with victims of abuse by Russian security forces. But the US foundation has also funded many projects in science and culture.

"This will be a blow not only to Russian NGOs, but to education," Ms Taubina adds.

Foreign-backed NGOs that conduct any kind of political activity in Russia are already forced to register as foreign agents.

This week the justice ministry issued an official warning to 12 of them for failing to make that "subversive" status clear when distributing material.

The list includes such long-established human-rights bodies as Memorial and the Sakharov Centre.