Russian Authorities Raid Amnesty International and Other NGO Offices
March 28th, 2013Via: New York Times:
The Russian authorities on Monday raided the local headquarters of the human rights group Amnesty International, the latest in a continuing series of office searches intended to put pressure on nongovernmental groups.
The head of Amnesty’s office in Russia, Sergei Nikitin, said in a telephone interview that officials from the general prosecutor’s offices and from the tax police arrived unannounced on Monday morning to conduct what they described as an “audit” and demanded a list of documents, most of which Mr. Nikitin said were already on file with the government.
“They’re sitting and waiting for me to bring the originals and copies,” Mr. Nikitin said. “This is ongoing because we, of course, were not expecting them today.”
He added: “They don’t have any concrete complaints. They say it’s a regular check and other cliché phrases.”
Last week, the authorities conducted a similar raid at the offices of Memorial, an international historical society and human rights group that has operated in Russia and other post-Soviet states for more than two decades.
Pavel Chikov, a member of Russia’s presidential human rights council, said offices of dozens of nonprofit organizations had been searched across Russia in March, including at least 20 organizations on Monday.
“We can definitely say it’s been the most active day for these searches so far,” he said in a telephone interview.
