RUSSIA: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday defended a controversial new law that tightens controls on non-governmental organisations as two organisations were expelled.
British charity Centre of Peacekeeping and Community Development, (CPCD) and the German group Help have been banned from working in Ingushetia, adjacent to Chechnya.
The announcement came amid fresh controversy when it emerged that the new law had been signed by President Vladimir Putin last week but only made public on Tuesday.
Mr Lavrov said complaints from human rights groups were unjustified. "The reality is that with the adoption of the new Russian law there will be no dramatic changes in the activities of NGOs," he said in an open letter to a Russian newspaper.
"In the law adopted by the Federal Assembly, no limits on people's freedom and no bans on NGO activities are to be introduced or could be introduced because that would contradict the Russian constitution."
There was no reply from the Moscow or London offices of CPCD, which works with refugees from Chechnya.
US-based Human Rights Watch official Holly Cartner said the new rule would cramp the activities of NGOs, allowing Russian officials the power to close down those they do not like.
"Putting pressure on Russia to respect human rights will contribute to stability in Europe in the long run."
Authorities in Ingushetia, one of several war-torn provinces in the Caucuses, say the groups are being banned for having incorrect registration.
Four years ago another British charity, mine-clearance group the Halo Trust, was banned from Chechnya after the security service accused it of training rebel soldiers in mining techniques.
Diplomats in Moscow say Russia is wary of the sort of help that Ukrainian opposition activists received during the "Orange Revolution" from US-based groups and want tighter controls ahead of elections in 2007.
Human rights groups say the signing of the law last week was kept quiet, with no official mention, so that it could not become an issue when the president met German chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday. "In the best of Soviet traditions, the law was published at the very moment when the head of the German government had left Moscow," said Lev Ponomarev, head of NGO "For Human Rights".