Russian officials search Human Rights Watch office

RUSSIAN officials have searched the Moscow offices of Human Rights Watch and three other advocacy groups, the latest in a wave of hundreds of inspections.

Activists claim the searches are part of a campaign to silence criticism of president Vladimir Putin.

Since returning to the Kremlin in May, Mr Putin has tightened controls on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), requiring those with foreign funding to register as “foreign agents”.

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The Kremlin says it is working to prevent foreign governments meddling in Russian politics, but activists see the visits by prosecutors and other authorities ranging from tax officials to fire inspectors as state persecution of dissent.

“This is part of a massive, unprecedented in its scale wave of inspections of NGOs throughout Russia... covering hundreds and hundreds of groups,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “Most immediately it is an effort to intimidate. More broadly it’s part of an effort to discredit ideas about human rights and civil society, to somehow tar them as foreign and suspect,” she said from New York, where the group is based.

Federal migration officials also visited the offices yesterday of a rights group run by Svetlana Gannushkina, one of Russia’s most prominent campaigners to help refugees and migrants, Ms Gannushkina said.

“I am a member of the state commission for migration politics. We are not working against our government – I’m afraid that our government is working against our people,” she said. Ms Denber said a tax officer and three prosecutorial officials were polite but spent hours in the Human Rights Watch office yesterday in an unannounced inspection, demanding copies of registration papers and other documents. They were unarmed.

Authorities also visited offices of anti-corruption group Transparency International Russia and Agora, a human rights organisation.

On Monday, the Moscow offices of Amnesty International were searched in checks the human rights advocacy group said showed “the menacing atmosphere for civil society” in Russia.