Timur Utsoyev, Grozny. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
In the republics of the North Caucasus, there are proposals to form a pro-Russian civil network of non-profit organizations, which would interact on a horizontal level, producing successful civil practice. Representatives of NGOs and local government agencies explained to "Vestnik Kavkaza" the extent to which civic organizations are needed in Chechnya today and the tasks they set themselves.
President of the Foundation for support of non-governmental organizations in Chechnya, Luiza Ayubova.
Due to the fact that the law on foreign agents is being issued, and thus the organizations are getting deprived of donors, many will have to reduce their activities. However, these organizations include many motivated people, who work very actively, and people will not sit at home. We have only a few organizations really working to change the social situation in a better way. The law is so blurred that it can be applied to any organization. If they ever get a ruble, it must be reported and they must be presented as foreign agents. In this regard, some have decided to appeal to courts, others have closed down. There are those who choose to register and continue to work. I'm afraid that organizations engaged in socially-useful activity may be closed. Those eligible to vote, which can be heard. But the question is, if they are denied registration, who whom will they work informally? Many people belong to NGOs - bee-keepers, beer lovers, chess players, etc. But everybody is considered to be carrying out socio-political activity.
Deputy Director of the Department for Relations with religious and social organizations of the administration of the Head and the Government of the Chechen Republic, Abdullah Istamulov.
Today, 836 organizations are registered in the country, and among them, we consider about fifty to be really working. But Chechen civil institutions are no less active than those in other regions. Recently, a few disturbing trends appeared in the country, in connection with the fact that the country is influenced by foreign intelligence through foundations and civil society institutions. The federal government hitherto gave a billion rubles through its operators for the support of civil society. Recently, Vladimir Putin said that this amount will be trebled. Some felt that civil society is being outbid. If you do not raise your society, it will be raised by others, who will feed it with their ideology and influence you through this. Only God is independent, all the rest are dependent. I myself until recently headed an organization funded by foreign grants. Realizing that politics and geopolitics in the world have changed, and that Russia also has its own vision, we switched to domestic sources of funding.
Chairman of the regional public organization "Stimul", Ruslan Yarkiev
The Foreign Agents as those organizations that are engaged in political activities and financed from abroad are called, are subject to this law. But our organization is mainly socially oriented. I do not know those who are engaged in political activities. And in our case social activists are rallying, trying to put pressure on the government. In any case, they do not interfere with the work.
Deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Chechnya, Sultan Ibragimov
As regards the issues being addressed by NGOs in the country, there is a false understanding of their work. Many do not even realize that NGOs represent a very wide range of social activities. When we are told that NGOs do not do something, then we explain that they need to do their job. They work and occupy a niche, which the state has made legally. The fact is that in today's Chechnya the formation of civil society is still going on. While in other regions this system worked for years, for us it is new. In times of upheaval, we had to pay tribute to the work of human rights defenders. They performed feats, and some of them were wounded or killed. They were few, and they have made a contribution. Now the field of activities of human rights organizations has narrowed, although there are still issues of missing persons and the prison system. Recently, at a meeting of the Coordinating Council in Stavropol, a question was raised about the measures of the federal state supervision. It was attended by the minister, who was interested in the number of NGOs in the regions and the quality of their work. We perceived the law on NGOs - foreign agents very ambiguously. Certainly, we have representatives who accept foreign aid. We are told that certain sums went through our organizations, last year it was 50 million. I do not see any problem here, the main thing is that these funds should be used according to the ordinance, and not for some extremist or other purposes. We do not do this, we work closely with police forces. The organizations which will receive the money must decide. The law starts from November 21 this year. We need to register these organizations, to determine the course of financial resources in terms of transparency, by definition there is a whole group of problems. Now we will approach these organizations more closely and more carefully, because of the fact that the procedural issues of control and supervision are now of a different nature. Those organizations that do not want to be agents say that they are representatives of the people. The law implies their transformation, change or action in other forms.
