Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Open Society and MacArthur Foundations to be Banned by Russia Along with Many Others
On Wednesday, Russian lawmakers released a preliminary list of 12 nongovernment organizations that could be banned under a “patriotic stop-list” signed into law by Mr. Putin in May. It includes large organizations like George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, as well as smaller groups that seem unlikely targets.
Martyna Bogaczyk, vice president of the board of the Education for Democracy Foundation, based in Warsaw, said in a telephone interview that her group was taken aback to be put on such a list after 15 years in Russia holding teacher seminars, promoting volunteerism and working with local schools on civic initiatives. Noting the much larger organizations on the list, like Open Society and the MacArthur Foundation, Ms. Bogaczyk said: “We are not these kind of players....”