Anti-domestic violence group ‘Nasiliu.net’ fined for violating ‘foreign agent’ law

On Wednesday, April 14, a Moscow court fined the anti-domestic violence group “Nasiliu.net” (No to Violence) 300,000 rubles ($3,970) for violating the law on “foreign agent” NGOs.

“For all intents and purposes, this fine is over the fact that the center didn’t enter itself into the list of foreign agents, which, of course, it couldn’t do because it doesn’t consider itself a foreign agent,” said Nasiliu.net’s lawyer, Kirill Koroteev (as quoted by Pavel Chikov, the head of the human rights group Agora).

Nasiliu.net was written up for violating the law on foreign-agent NGOs in March, allegedly because of its support for the adoption of legislation aimed at combating domestic violence. The Justice Ministry considered this to be “political activity.” The lawyer representing the group emphasized that the alleged violation was in connection with Nasiliu.net’s backing of a 2016 draft law — at the time, the advocacy group wasn’t a registered organization.

Nasiliu.net offers assistance and support to victims of domestic violence in Russia. In December 2020, it was labeled a “foreign agent” and in February 2021 the Justice Ministry threatened to dissolve the advocacy group completely due to alleged violations contained within its charter. In early March, Nasiliu.net was notified that it had one month to vacate its rented office space in Moscow. The group tried to challenge its “foreign agent” status in court, but was unsuccessful.