Moscow: The Kremlin is expected to crack down on lobby groups after the European Court of Human Rights awarded damages to a woman whose son vanished in the Chechen war zone.
Fatima Bazorkina had gone to the court over the disappearance six years ago of Khadzimurat Yandiyev.
The Strasbourg ruling potentially opens the way for a torrent of claims over alleged misconduct and atrocities against Chechens by Russian troops.
The ruling will, however, compound irritation in Moscow at citizens who resort to international courts when their cases get nowhere at home.
"The official structures that exert pressure couldn't care less about the people involved, like a woman and her missing son," said one lawyer from a foreign-funded NGO in Moscow.
"Cases are assessed on their political implications and the heat gets turned up accordingly," the lawyer said.
Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday it would fulfil its obligations and pay the £21,000 awarded to Bazorkina but called on the court to avoid "any politicisation" when weighing up its rulings.
While the FSB domestic intelligence agency keeps tabs on NGOs, other state agencies such as the tax inspectorate, are suspected of playing a role in reining in organisations that deal with the court. This month, federal tax authorities slapped £89,000 bill on a human rights group.
The Centre for Assistance in International Defence, an NGO with links to the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is contesting the 5 million-rouble demand, which could bring its closure if enforced.
"We are outraged and would like to think it's just a mistake by the tax inspectorate," said Oksana Preobrazhenskaya, the centre's director. She added that the measure might be retribution for the centre's work helping citizens take their cases to Strasbourg. "Each positive decision by the court is a slap in the face to the state. Of course they don't like it". The centre has so far won nine cases with about 250 pending.
The tax sting stems from the interpretation of donations as profits liable to income tax.
Source: The Telegraph Group Limited
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