Rights defenders stripped of funds

Nizhny Novgorod's Nizhegorodskii District Inspection of the Federal Tax Service has launched compulsory seizure of targeted funds from accounts of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society that handles Chechnya problems. The seizure is performed on the basis of a decision of the tax agency on collecting profit tax arrears by sending collection letters to the bank in compliance with the procedure set out in Article 46 of the Tax Code. There are orders to charge off a total 844,227 roubles, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society reports.

Meanwhile, the tax inspection's decision to hold the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society accountable under a Tax Code article has been appealed in the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court of Arbitration the other day. Simultaneously, a petition for suspending the decision until the examination of the appeal was filed. The court is going to consider the appeal the next week. Human rights defenders believe the tax inspection has made use of this pause to strip the human rights organisation of funds.

The Nizhegorodskii District Inspection of the Federal Tax Service passed Decision No 25 on holding the RCFS accountable for a Tax Code violation on 15 August. In this document, a deputy chief of the inspection insists that the Society should pay a profit tax on grants it received in 2002-04 and penalties which together amount to 1,001,561 roubles.

At a recent meeting with leaders of human rights organisation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was inadmissible that public organisations were funded from foreign countries. Especially, the president remarked, if funding goes "for areas most burning for Russia."

The activities of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society are financed by the Council of Europe and the US-based National Endowment for Democracy. The organisation's main objective is to inform the international community and the Russian public about human rights violations in Chechnya.

Close attention to the RCFS on the part of government has been observed for more than a year, reminds Grani.ru. A criminal case was opened over the publication of an interview with late separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov in Pravozashchita ("Rights Defence") newspaper published by the RCFS.

The criminal case under the article "Appeals to violent change of government" was closed, but later an anti-RCFS campaign began in Nizhny Novgorod's media.

RCFS leader Stanislav Dmitriyevskii was beaten. Leaflets with threats of violence were thrown into the letter box of Oksana Chelyshev, a member of the organisation. Telephone communication was periodically cut off in the RCFS office.

• Events in Chechnya

More info:

• Declaration on Human Rights Defenders