Structural Inequality in the Third Sector: how law and Legislative Drafts Produce, Support and Organize Hierarchical Systems Among Non-governmental Organizations

• Author: A. Pronin - D. Skibo
• Position: Voronezh State University (Voronezh, Russia) - Centre for Independent Social Research (St. Petersburg, Russia)
• Pages: 117-137

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 3

STRuCTuRaL InEQuaLITY In THE THIRD SECToR:

How Law anD LEGISLaTIVE DRaFTS PRoDuCE, SuPPoRT

anD oRGanIZE HIERaRCHICaL SYSTEMS aMonG

non-GoVERnMEnTaL oRGanIZaTIonS*

ANATOLY PRONIN,

Voronezh State University (Voronezh, Russia)

DARIA SKIBO,

Centre for Independent Social Research (St. Petersburg, Russia)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2016-3-3-117-137

Within the framework of the article the problem of inequalit y in the Third Sector is

dened. The authors tie the production and institutionalization of this inequality with

laws that were passed in the sphere of the regulation of non-governmental organizations

(NGOs) in recent years as well as with several draft laws. The analysis focuses on the

“foreign agent” status. Organizations that receive this status have more obligations and

fewer rights in comparison with other NGOs. According to the research, the burden of

a foreign agent status can be measured in terms of legal discrimination, but it also may

be measured nancially. The authors see t to analyze other existing legal statuses of

Russian NGOs, above all the status of an NGO realizing socially valuable projects (SO

NGO), and to compare them with the legal status of a “foreign agent” NGO. The analysis

shows that foreign agent NGOs and SO NGOs gradually stand at opposite poles of the

legal system: the former are synonymous with politically and legally undesirable subjects,

whereas the latter step by step become the state-oriented, useful organizations meriting

additional support, protection and social, economic and legal benets.

Keywords: third sector; NGOs; foreign agent; socially oriented NGO; political activity.

* This paper was rst presented at the conference “Between the Carrot and the Stick: Emerging Needs

and Forms for Non-State Actors Including NGOs and Informal Organizations in Contemporary Russia,”

organized by Aleksanteri Institute (University of Helsinki, Finland) in collaboration with the Centre for

Independent Social Research (St. Petersburg, Russia) in February 2016.

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 3 118

Recommended citation: Anatoly Pronin & Daria Skibo, Structural Inequality in the

Third Sector: How Law and Legislative Drafts Produce, Support and Organize Hierarchical

Systems among Non-Governmental Organizations, 3(3) BRICS Law Journal 117–137

(2016).

1. Introduction and Context

The term “foreign agents law” is used to describe the set of amendments to the

statutory acts regulating the activities of non-prot organizations (NPOs) on the

territory of the Russian Federation that were passed in the summer of 2012.1 Only

one non-prot organization2 that operated on Russian territory entered the Federal

Ministry of Justice list of foreign agents voluntarily. In practice, then, the law was

not having the intended eect. This situation initiated a wave of investigations by

prosecutors against organizations that, in the opinion of regulatory agencies, should

be added to the list of organizations functioning as foreign agents. I n the spring

of 2013, investigations took place into more than 300 organizations conducting

activities in 67 regions of the Russian Federation.3

Alongside the investigations, the media formed the public image of a foreign

agent as something not very different from a “foreign spy.”4 The picture was

completed by the judicial proceedings against the most politically active (or the

most discriminated against) organizations – in Moscow it was the Golos5 scandal,

1 Федеральный закон от 20 июля 2012 г. № 121-ФЗ «О внесении изменений в отдельные законода-

тельные акты Российской Федерации в части регулирования деятельности некоммерческих

организаций, выполняющих функции иностранного агента», Собрание законодательства РФ, 2012,

№ 30, ст. 4172 [Federal law No. 121-FZ of July 20, 2012. On Amendments to Particular Statutory Acts

of the Russian Federation with Regard to the Regulation of Activities of NGOs Functioning as Foreign

Agents, Legislation Bulletin of the Russian Federation, 2012, No. 30, Art. 4172].

2 The non-commercial partnership Sodeystviye razvitiyu konkurentsii v stranakh SNG entered the list of

non-prot organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent on June 27, 2013 on a voluntary

basis. This NGO was established by Federal Antimonopoly Service of the RF in 2009. The appearance of

the rst volunteers in the registry caused a massive public outcry.

3 There are no ocial statistics in this sphere. The data provided here is derived from the projec t

ClosedSociety ((Mar. 31, 2016), available at http://closedsociety.org/data/checks).

4 About the negative connotation see Zastavit’ stat’ “inostrannym agentom”, comments from Alexej

Kudrin, RadioSvoboda (Jan. 2, 2014), available at http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/25215790.

html; Lyudmila Alekseyeva, “Inostranny agent” – shpion i predatel, comments from Ludmila Alexeeva,

Finam (Nov. 21, 2014), available at http://nam.info/news/lyudmila-alekseeva-inostranniy-agent-

shpion-i-predatel/. A public opinion poll conducted in July 2012 showed that 64% of respondents

are against the par ticipation of foreign-funded non-prot organizations in the public and political

life of Russia. Press release No. 2071 Inostrannye dengi dlya rossiyskikh NKO: obshchestvennaya otsenka,

WCIOM (Mar. 31, 2016), available at http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=112925.

5 In April 2013, Golos was ned 300,000 rubles. In addition, the head of the organization, Lilia Shibanova,

was ned 100,000 rubles. In the summer of 2013, the court dismissed the complaint by the organization

over its inclusion in the registry of foreign agents. In the autumn of 2013, the director of Golos