The heads of Saami organizations in Russia believe that their national social organizations have been wrongly labeled as foreign agents by the public prosecution office under a new law.

We reminder our readers that messages have recently appeared in Russian Federal media about the fact that the public prosecution office of the Murmansk oblast ruled that Saami unity organizations fall under the new law on foreign agents. Headlines in the media have reinforced this message, such as the lenta.ru headline, “Public prosecutor’s office declares the Saami to be foreign agents.” So, the chair of the Saami parliament of the Kola peninsula (Kuellnegk nyoark samm’ sobbar) Valenitina Sovkina told the FINUGOR Infocenter that no documents to that affect from the Murmansk oblast public prosecutor’s office have reached the KNSS, in that it is an elective body, and not a registered social organization, which would fall under the articles of the law.

But the situation is a bit less clear with other Saami organizations. “We tried to find out about the organizations, but couldn’t: as for the conjecture about the Murmansk Oblast Saami Social Organization (OOSMO), they received a warning, and the head of OOSMO, Dinara Skavronskaya does not think it is a warning that they will be declared a foreign agent. There’s still the Lovozero national-cultural autonomy, but department head Yakov Yushkov has not released any information,” said V. Sovkina.

Also, the site of the public prosecutor of the Russian Federation says that the public prosecutor of the Lovozero district of the Murmansk oblast conducted a test, during which it was determined that there were 2 non-commercial organizations working the district receiving financing from sources including foreign organizations.

In accordance with p. 6 pg. 2 of Federal Law No. 7-FZ from 12.01.1996 “On noncommercial organizations,” a noncommercial organization carrying out the work of a foreign agent is understood to mean a Russian noncommercial organization receiving monetary funds and other property from foreign governments, their state bodies, international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, individuals without citizenship, or any individual answering to one of the aforementioned and (or) from Russian legal entities, receiving monetary funds and other property from the aforementioned sources (with the exception of open joint-stock corporations with government ownership and their daughter corporations), and which participates, including in the interests of foreign sources, in political activity inside the territory of the Russian Federation.

As follows from the report of the noncommercial organizations, the following received monetary funds from foreign investors for social and charitable aid, holding conferences, seminars, meetings, and similar events, expenses associated with holding and making use of property, buildings, transport and paying taxes. These organizations have not declared that they are paying any expenses using monetary funds received from foreign investors for participation in political activity.

In addition, the public prosecutor’s site notes that pre-requisites for carrying out functions of a foreign agent include: the inclusion in the organization’s Charter of goals aimed at political organization, and also receiving monetary funds from foreign sources.

With the goal of not violating the Federal law “On noncommercial organizations” in terms of noncommercial organizations preventing their illegally carrying out the functions of foreign agents without corresponding registration of the foreign agent, the public prosecutor office of the district issued an official warning to the heads of the noncommercial organizations on the inadmissibility of breaking Federal laws.