US Double Standards Evident Again in Critique of Russia's Law on NGOs

Alexey Pushkov, head of the Russian Lower House's International Affairs Committee, has blamed the US State Department for criticizing Russia's latest law on non-governmental organizations (NGO).

The US State Department has been typically belligerent in heaping criticism on a law against NGOs in Russia signed by the country's President Vladimir Putin, according to Alexey Pushkov, head of the Russian Lower House's International Affairs Committee.

Госдеп верен себе: закон об НКО в России — плохой, а офиц.отказ Киева от соблюдения прав человек в Донбассе США по душе. Все приличия забыты

— Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) 24 мая 2015

"The State Department is true to itself, assailing the law on NGOs in Russia and praising Kiev's official reluctance to observe human rights in the Donbass region. All decency put aside," Pushkov wrote in his Twitter microblog on Sunday.

The remarks came a day after President Putin inked a law that   allows Russian authorities to prosecute foreign NGOs designated as "undesirable" on national security grounds. Such organizations will not be allowed to operate in Russia, their structural divisions will be closed, and the spread of information materials will be prohibited.

People walk past the US State Department building July 6, 2011 in Washington, DC

© AFP 2023 / Karen BLEIER

The US State Department was quick to react by saying that it was "deeply troubled" by the signing of the law. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf described the document as "a further example of the Russian government's growing crackdown on independent voices and intentional steps to isolate the Russian people from the world."

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a resolution approving its own statement on "Ukraine's non-compliance with certain obligations established by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was instructed to inform the United Nations about the resolution. The explanatory note to the document said that in connection with the ongoing special operation in eastern Ukraine, Kiev exercises its right to withdraw from the obligations outlined in a number of items of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the European Social Charter.

In mid-April 2014, Kiev launched what it called an "anti-terrorist operation" in eastern Ukraine, where it said supporters of the Donbass region's independence are allegedly supported by  Russia, which denies the accusations.