The Toronto-based Ukrainian World Congress has been added to Russia’s list of “undesirables.” On July 11, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation declared the UWC an “undesirable” organization that poses “a threat to the security of the state and the constitutional framework.” Once deemed “undesirable,” an NGO’s accounts are frozen and its branches must be closed; violators of the law face fines of up to 500,000 Russian rubles ($7,930 U.S.) as well as imprisonment.
In case some of our readers may not be familiar with the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), here’s the most essential description of this organization founded in 1976 in New York (first known as the World Congress of Free Ukrainians): It is the international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians in 60 countries. Furthermore, since 2003, the UWC has been recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a non-governmental organization with special consultative status; in 2018 it obtained participatory status as an international NGO with the Council of Europe.
Russia’s blacklisting of the UWC was, quite frankly, yet another move by Russia to silence its critics and, at the same time, to obstruct the activity of Ukrainian organizations and destroy the Ukrainian community in Russia. The Ukrainian World Congress, you see, has been protesting Russia’s war on Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea and its issuance of Russian passports to persons living on Ukrainian territory. Some 2 million Ukrainians live in Russia, making them the largest diaspora group of Ukrainians and Russia’s third largest ethnic group. According to the UWC, many of these Ukrainians were either deported to the Gulag in the far east of Russia during the Soviet era or live on ethnically Ukrainian lands that are today part of, or were illegally annexed, by Russia.
UWC President Paul Grod told Canada’s National Post: “The thing that’s of greatest concern to us is the attitude that the Russian government is taking towards the large Ukrainian ethnic minority within Russia. …The Kremlin is essentially trying to isolate any civil society organizations within Russia, trying to isolate them from the outside world.” Ihor Michalchyshyn, the CEO of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), a member-organization of the UWC, echoed that assessment: “Our greatest fear is that community groups in Russia will now face even more pressure and repression.” Significantly, Mr. Grod himself had been declared persona non grata by Russia when he was president of the UCC. He was in good company. He and Canadian Member of Parliament Chrystia Freeland, today Canada’s foreign affairs minister, were sanctioned by Russia back in 2014 and forbidden from entering the country.
As for the background to Russia’s treatment of those organizations and activists it wants to muzzle, in 2015 President Vladimir Putin signed a law that gave the Russian government the power to designate foreign and international NGOs as “undesirable organizations.” The first declared “undesirable” was the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy. The law was also applied to Russian organizations deemed to be working with foreign “undesirables.” Furthermore, Russian citizens who work with such organizations can be held criminally liable and face prison terms. The “undesirables” law was a follow-up to a 2012 law on “foreign agents,” which mandated that non-profit organizations that receive foreign donations and engage in “political activity” must register and declare themselves as “foreign agents.” Among the groups targeted were Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Transparency International.
Thus, it is clear to all that Russia is systematically increasing its repression and violations of the rights of its own citizens. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian World Congress underscores that it will continue to defend the human rights of Ukrainian communities around the globe. “We will use all legal and diplomatic means to protect the Ukrainian minority against continued discrimination and bullying in Russia. We call on the international community to denounce Russia’s efforts to isolate and intimidate civil society organizations in Russia,” UWC President Grod wrote on Facebook.