Russia Boots Out Biggest NGO

Russian Justice Initiative (RJI), Russia’s largest foreign non-governmental organization providing legal assistance to Russians in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), was excluded from the list of authorized NGOs. Since 2001, RJI has won about 10 million Euros (almost $13 million) in the Strasbourg court on complaints from residents of Chechnya. In late 2010, it won a record lawsuit of 1.72 million euros (about $2.3 mln) against Russia over the killing of at least 24 Chechen villagers in an operation against militants in 2000. The Russian Justice Ministry ruled in February 2011 to exclude the organization from the list of authorized non-governmental organizations over an overdue report, effectively barring it from operating on Russia’s territory. “It looks like they [the authorities] are deliberately finding faults with us,” the organization’s executive director Vanessa Kogan said. Russia accounts for more than 26 percent of ECHR cases, a larger share than any other country. It has lost the majority of its cases.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120312/172109488.html