Russian rights group evicted from Moscow office

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Authorities forcibly evicted a prominent Russian human rights organization from its office in the early hours of Saturday in a raid its director said he believed was ordered by officials in President Vladimir Putin's administration.

For Human Rights is one of the best-known of the hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have been subjected to state inspections under a law Putin signed last year requiring NGOs with foreign funding to register as "foreign agents".

Western powers and rights groups view the legislation and inspections as being aimed at intimidating activists and silencing criticism of Putin, who started a new six-year term in May 2012.

Putin, who has accused Western governments of using NGOs to spy on Russia and influence the political situation, says the law is needed to ensure transparency and that the checks are to enforce legal compliance.

Riot police and Moscow mayor's office representatives entered the building housing the office of For Human Rights at about 2 a.m. (6 p.m. EDT Friday), ejecting at least six employees and supporters, said the group's director, Lev Ponomaryov.

"They treated us very roughly. I was dragged across the floor and then kicked," the 72-year-old said by telephone. He said he and five others were taken by ambulance to a first-aid clinic with bruises and scrapes, but none were in hospital.

A Moscow property official, Maxim Gaman, told state-run news agency RIA on Friday that For Human Rights was being evicted because its lease on the city-owned premises had run out in February and had been terminated on May 27.

A police spokesman said officers had been sent to help city officials evict the group because its lease had run out.

Ponomaryov said the group had not received an eviction notice. He said several security officers had come on Friday afternoon and told them to leave but provided no eviction order.

He said the eviction may have been motivated by the group's refusal to give prosecutors documents they had demanded under the foreign agent law.

"I don't know if Putin is behind it but there must have been a decision at a very high level, in the Kremlin," he said. He also blamed Kremlin-appointed mayor Sergei Sobyanin for the eviction.

The presidential press service declined to comment, and Sobyanin's office could not immediately be reached.

Ponomaryov said he had expected to extend the lease as he had done in previous years, and that he was up to date on rent payments. "It's all entirely illegal," he said, adding that a court decision was required to carry out an eviction.

Russia's human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, said city and law enforcement authorities had "tried to resolve a dispute between two parties unilaterally without involving the courts".

He said he had been barred from the scene of the raid in what he called a "crude violation of federal constitutional law", Interfax news agency reported.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Jason Bush and Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-rights-group-evicted-moscow-office-094115267.html

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