MOSCOW: Russian authorities searched the Moscow offices of New-York based Human Rights Watch yesterday as they stepped up raids against pro-democracy groups despite growing EU concern.

HRW’s Europe and Central Asia department head Rachel Denber said three representatives from the prosecutor’s office and a tax official had begun what they called “an unplanned inspection” of the Moscow office.

She said the Moscow headquarters of the Civic Assistance refugees centre and of the Transparency International corruption watchdog had been raided in a similar manner.

“This is part of a massive, unprecedented wave of inspections of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in Russia that is intensifying pressure on civil society in the wake of the adoption of a number of restrictive laws last year,” Denber said by e-mail.

“The scale of these inspections serves to reinforce the menacing atmosphere for civil society created by the adoption of last year’s laws.”

The raids followed President Vladimir Putin’s signature of a law that labelled Russian political organisations with Western funding as “foreign agents” that required more rigorous checks.

Putin blamed the US State Department for funding the protests that rose against his return to the presidency last winter and moved quickly against the NGOs once confirmed to power in May.

Russian officials have not linked the raids to the foreign agent law directly and the action appears part of an in-depth examination of activities of non-governmental organisations that bother the state.

The authorities began their action last week by moving in against Memorial — one of the country’s most respected rights organisations whose vast catalogue of Stalin-era repressions is accessed by scholars around the world.

The Moscow office of London-based Amnesty International was searched on Monday.

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/international/230943-human-rights-watch-offices-raided-in-russia.html