AMBASSADOR RAISES OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED BY NGOS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 005246 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/31/2017 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KDEM SOCI OSCE RS SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RAISES OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED BY NGOS WITH MFA REF: MOSCOW 2202 Classified By: Ambassador William J. Burns. Reasons: 1.4 (b,d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Ambassador on November 1 raised with Deputy Foreign Minister Yakovenko problems encountered by Russian and U.S. NGOS as the Duma elections approach, and voiced concerns over the number of ODIHR monitors to be invited to the December 2 Duma election. The Ambassador described to Yakovenko recent incidents with three of the four major USAID-funded democracy assistance grantees and the Moscow Carnegie Center. Official opposition to the NGOs appears to emanate from concerns that "color revolution" advocates will attempt to stir up trouble during the elections. In addition to the Carnegie Center, the Samara branch office of the NGO Golos,the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute appear to be under close scrutiny. End summary. -------------- Harassment of U.S. Political Party NGOS -------------- ¶2. (C) USAID election program partners, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI),have separately reported problems that they and their Russian associates have faced in recent months. During a recent visit by two IRI employees to Moscow, the head of IRI received a telephone threat against the visitors, and one of the visiting IRI employees on his way to lunch with other IRI colleagues was grabbed by a stranger and told to leave Russia. Later that week, the IRI office was burglarized and the visitors' laptops were stolen. IRI did not report these incidents to the police, nor did they seek assistance from the Embassy. The local IRI director told us that he is not certain that the burglary was part of the harassment campaign. Embassy has strenuously urged IRI to report such incidents to the police in the future. ¶3. (C) The head of NDI has been physically assaulted twice in Russia this year; once in a Moscow bar late at night, and the second time while leaving a dinner in a Moscow restaurant. Adding to NDI unease was a Russian television program on October 7 that criticized USAID programs and NDI in particular, and focused on an NDI employee who serves as a technical expert to Golos. -------------- Problems for Voter Advocacy NGO Golos -------------- �A; ¶4. (SBU) The voter advocacy NGO Golos has six regional branches and 37 local branches across Russia which monitor elections and conduct training for its journalists/observers with the support of USAID, NDI, the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) and others. ¶5. (C) Two days after the RTR television program aired, Golos was informed that facilities it had leased in Moscow for a training session would be unavailable because electrical repairs had to be done on the day of the training. NDI, which funded the training, called posing as a potential client and were told that the facilities were available for use that day. This type of petty harassment is similar to that endured by ex-Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other opposition politicians. -------------- -------------- Volga Regional Golos Office Targeted by the Authorities -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) On October 25, the Federal Registration Service (FRS) suspended the operations of Golos's Volga Region branch (Golos-Povolzhye),citing its failure to appoint a board of directors, failure to file financial statements, the absence of financial transaction statements, and its participation in activities that exceeded the scope of its charter. Director Lyudmila Kuzmina told us that Golos-Povolzhye would operate pending the result of its appeal. ¶7. (C) Kuzmina told us that her troubles with the authorities began in May, less than two hours after she gave an interview to radio station Ekho Moskvy about the Samara March of the Dissenters. Officers from the local organized crime directorate searched her office and seized its computers (reftel). Charges were filed against Kuzmina for having unlicensed software on her computers, and the Golos office was closed for three months. The computers were returned and the office was allowed to reopen on September 10. On MOSCOW 00005246 002 OF 003 September 19, the FRS began a month-long audit which Kuzmina claims was illegal because the FRS had not provided the required advance notification (in fact, she received notification the day after the audit began). ¶8. (C) The Moscow Golos office will send lawyers to assist Kuzmina in her cases against the FRS, and assistants to help run the regional office while Kuzmina prepares her defense. When describing the charges, Kuzmina explained that she was not able to provide the FRS with financial transaction records because they had been seized by the police in May. She did not explain why her organization had not named a board of directors or filed the other required financial reports with the FRS. ¶9. (C) GOLOS Moscow Director Liliya Shibanova October 31 ascribed part of her Samara office's problems to the appointment of Governor Artyakov. She thought that GOLOS may have become a target of opportunity for Artyakov's team, which is under pressure to bring the region under control and ensure the necessary turnout for the Kremlin party United Russia on December 2. Samara Ombudswoman Irina Oksupela, whom Shibanova has known for years, has informally described to her a power struggle between Artyakov and Samara Mayor Tarkhov. Oksupela has promised to do what she can for GOLOS, but has told her that she will not make any public announcements, as she does not wan to jeopardize necessary relations she has cultivated with local FSB and law enforcement representatives. -------------- Tax Authorities Visit Moscow Carnegie Center -------------- ¶10. (C) Moscow Carnegie Center Director Rose Gotemoeller told us that she had a wide-ranging and "unpleasant" conversation with Russian tax authorities on October 30. The authorities requested lists, going back several years, of all who participated in Carnegie events, and other information about the nature of the events. Ambassador urged Gotemoeller to bring her problems to the attention of Human Rights Ombudsman Lukin and recommended that Carnegie Washington contact Ambassador Ushakov. Ambassador immediately protested Carnegie's problems with the tax authorities to MFA North American Division Director Igor Neverov. -------------- Ambassador Presses MFA -------------- ¶11. (C) The Ambassador described the above problems to Deputy Foreign Minister Yakovenko on November 1, noting that all USG-funded NGOs are careful to abide by the law. He noted that the NGOs are in Russia to support the development of institutions, and are not engaged in controversial activity. Yakovenko interrupted the Ambassador to find paper in order to take notes. In response to the Ambassador's concerns, Yakovenko urged IRI and NDI to report all incidents to the police in order to create a record for further action. He noted, for example, that the threatening telephone call received by IRI could be traced, but had to be reported to the police in order for that to occur. Ambassador told Yakovenko that the Embassy had urged IRI to report all future incidents to the police. Yakovenko took careful notes, but offered no comment on Golos. He promised to check on Carnegie's problems with the Tax Inspectorate. -------------- ODIHR Monitors -------------- ¶12. (C) Ambassador also reminded Yakovenko that other countries, to the best of his knowledge, had not restricted the number of ODIHR representatives invited to observe their elections. Yakovenko complained that ODIHR had acted like a body independent of the OSCE in promulgating rules without consultations with OSCE member countries. Russia had proposed that ODIHR's standards be discussed in OSCE at the beginning of the year, but had made no progress. The GOR continued to believe that ODIHR rules should be the product of OSCE consensus, and not established by fiat. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶13. (C) The Ambassador and Embassy staff will continue to emphasize to the GOR our concerns about pressure on NGOs, and the Embassy will urge NGOs to bring their problems to the attention of Russian law enforcement as they occur. By not MOSCOW 00005246 003 OF 003 following basic legal requirements such as filing financial statements or naming a board of directors, Golos-Povolzhye has left itself vulnerable to the GOR'S patented, selective application of the law. IRI's failure to report its problems to the police has undercut its claims that the harassment is of serious concern. The media campaign currently under way seems designed to ratchet up the pressure on NGOs like Golos, NDI, and IRI, and will likely continue through the election season. Burns