Russian advocacy group for victims of domestic violence declared a ‘foreign agent’

The anti-domestic violence advocacy group “Nasiliu.net” (No to Violence) has been officially recognized as a “foreign agent,” the Russian Justice Ministry announced in a press release on Tuesday, December 29.

“I’ll put it this way: we got hit 95 percent for the bill against violence, and 5 percent for LGBT propaganda,” the NGO’s co-founder Anna Rivina wrote on Facebook in response to the Justice Ministry’s declaration.

At the time of this writing, Nasiliu.net had yet to be added to the official registry of organizations that the Russian Justice Ministry considers foreign agents. 

According to Pavel Chikov, the head of the rights group “Agora,” Nasiliu.net will likely be added to the registry by the end of 2020. 

In mid-December, Nasiliu.net’s co-founder Anna Rivina reported that the Justice Ministry was planning to drop in on the organization for an unscheduled audit of its activities for the last 2.5 years, at the request of a “Mr. Trubetsky.” The Justice Ministry explained that the person who filed the request didn’t want to disclose their personal data, but “didn’t like [Nasiliu.net’s] business and finances.”