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=== Testimony for the European Court on Human Rights === :Case 9988/13 :from Ecodefense, Russia :July 19, 2013 In April 2013, our organization was checked by governmental prosecutors who requested large number of official documents putting unrealistic deadlines. We were informed at 6 pm of April 25 that we should bring documents to the prosecutor by 11 am of April 26. We could not follow this order because for some documents we need several days to request and obtain it from the bank and registration chamber... Checking of our organization resulted in official warning - local prosecutor declared that political activity is mentioned in our statute and warned that we should not violate the law on non-commercial organizations. Prosecutor also told us that we should not interact with governments of any level. Otherwise, it will be identified as "political activity" and our organization will be held responsible as "foreign agent". From our point of view, we are not involved into political activity - we do not take part in elections or any other activity aimed at political power. Also, we are not involved in any effort of other people or organizations aimed to obtain political power. Our organization was distanced from political activities since it was established in 1989... Our goals in the area of environmental protection can not be achieved without interaction with governments of various levels. At the same time, both - our strong criticism over policies of Russian government and specific political situation in Russia - are reasons which makes it almost impossible to obtain funds from Russian sources. That brings us to unpleasant choice - register as "foreign agent" or close down. This is unacceptable for us to be registered as "foreign agent". We are not "agents" for any foreign person, organization or government. We take decisions by ourselves only, and do not take into account interests of any third party. Continuation of our activities leads us to giant fines under "foreign agents" law and also to shut down because we will not be able to pay such fines. <small><small>{{footnotes}}</small></small> [[Category: Russia]] [[Category: Repression]] [[Category: Legal Issues]] [[Category: News]] [[Category: Ecodefense]] [[Category: English]] </noinclude>

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