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Last May, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's security service and a friend of President Vladimir Putin, gave a speech in parliament dripping with cold war-style rhetoric. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), he warned, were plotting to destabilise Russia; many were fronts for foreign intelligence.
Russia's parliament last week gave legal form to Mr Patrushev's anxiety when it passed a bill that would make it difficult for many foreign NGOs, such as New York-based Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, to continue operating in Russia. And it would force all NGOs, domestic and foreign, to register with a state commission with broad powers to investigate them and shut down any whose activities it disliked.
The bill's first reading came in the same week as it emerged the state was attempting to take control of Avtovaz, maker of Lada cars, and Russia's last independently minded national news anchor was taken off the air. Some observers warned the Kremlin seemed determined to extend its reach into every area of politics and business.
"There is a desire to turn civil society into a kind of waxwork, just as they converted parliament into a waxwork, and have successfully turned the mass media into a waxwork," said Alexander Petrov, of Human Rights Watch in Moscow.
The cross-party group of Russian MPs who drafted the NGO legislation say it aims to curb extremist groups and prevent phoney charitable "foundations" from being used to launder criminal proceeds.
But some make no bones about the underlying motive. That is to prevent foreign funded NGOs from helping bring about a pro-democracy revolution -- as Russia believes they did in other former Soviet republics and in Serbia. "We have seen what happened in Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Georgia, and how these local branches of foreign NGOs functioned that are funded by the CIA," said Alexei Ostrovsky, a nationalist MP involved in drafting the law. "We want to defend our citizens from the chaos that our country can be dragged into by these foreign NGOs."
Members of the NGO community speculated that pro-democracy groups such as the US-based National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute, and George Soros's Open Society Institute were among Russia's main targets. All were accused by the entourage of defeated Ukrainian presidential candidate Victor Yanukovich as having fuelled the "Orange Revolution" last year though their political activities were mainly limited to training election monitors.
But the legislation as drafted would make-life difficult for all international NGOs, because they could no longer function as branch or representative offices, but would have to re-register as a specific form of Russian legal entity. That would make it difficult to receive foreign funding, and impose requirements that many would struggle to meet, such as having a board of trustees comprising only permanent Russian residents.
It could hit not just human rights groups, but donor organisations such as the Ford Foundation, think-tanks such as the Carnegie Moscow Centre, and health charities ranging from the AIDS Foundation East-West to Downside Up, which helps Russian children with Down's syndrome.
Others affected would include such groups as the International Research and Exchanges Board, which arranges academic exchanges, and the Charities Aid Foundation, promoting the development of philanthropy.
Mr Putin insisted the day after Russia's lower house approved the bill 370-18 at a first reading that he would consult with its leaders to ensure that civil society institutions did not suffer.
But he stood firm on the bill's main aim. "Political activity in Russia should be as transparent as possible, including political financing", he said. "The ongoing funding of political activity in Russia from overseas should be closely supervised." (Under syndication arrangement with FE)
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