MOSCOW, October 26 – RAPSI. The State Duma has approved in its third and final reading a law that will impose fines for violating the provisions on the status of foreign agents for non-profit entities.

The Code of Administrative Violations is being amended.

The amendments to the code were an integral part of the draft law assigning Russian non-governmental organizations, financed from abroad and involved in politics, a foreign agent status, which was adopted by the State Duma during its spring session. Pursuant to the law, the "agents" will be obliged to be entered into a special registry and different legal regulations will apply to them which will not apply to ordinary non-governmental organizations. These regulations will stipulate specific accountability and checks.

But the provisions on administrative fines were removed from the draft law to be further approved separately in autumn. The bill on non-governmental organizations was divided into two bills, with amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations being one of them.

The "agents" will be obliged to be entered into a special registry and different legal regulations will apply to them which will not apply to ordinary non-governmental organizations. These regulations will stipulate specific accountability and checks.

The newly adopted law reads that failure of a non-governmental organization carrying out functions of a foreign agent to provide necessary information to a state authority will result in a warning or a 10,000 ($317) – 30,000 ($953) ruble fine for officials or a 100,000 ($3,178) – 300,000 ($9,534) ruble fine for legal entities.

If such an organization has not been entered into a special registry for such organization, the fine for officials will amount to 100,000 ($3,178) – 300,000 ($9,534) rubles, and to 300,000 ($9,534) to 500,000 ($15,890) rubles for legal entities.

If the organization has posted information in the media or the internet without specifying that the information has been posted by a foreign agent, its officials may be fined 100,000 ($3,178) – 300,000 ($9,534) rubles, while the entities may be fined ($9,534) to 500,000 ($15,890) rubles.

If a foreign-funded NGO, continues working despite an official suspension of its activity, it has been proposed that the organizers of such work should be fined 30,000 ($953) – 50,000 ($1,590) rubles, while it has been proposed that the organization’s members should be fined a total of 3,000 ($95.34) – 5,000 ($158) rubles.