Russia’s Justice Ministry has placed the independent national pollster Levada Center on its official register of organizations “operating as foreign agents”, potentially threatening the widely respected research group’s existence.
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A non-governmental organisation is given the label when it accepts money from a foreign government and engages in political activity, according to Russia’s 2012 law on foreign agents.
A spokeswoman for the European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she was concerned by the move, particularly as it came just two weeks ahead of nationwide parliamentary elections.
Still, he added that the inspection of the Levada Center’s documents came after it conducted a poll showing that support for the ruling United Russia party has dropped.
Levada Centre was formed in the early 2000s by researchers who had left the country’s largest state pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre.
Gudkov told TV Rain he does not link the Justice Ministry’s action with the fact that Russian Federation will hold parliamentary actions September 18.
The status of foreign agent is given to organisations suspected of accepting foreign funding for the goal manipulating public opinion to suit interests overseas. “We have worked with the Levada Center”.
Lev Gudkov, director of the pollster said the news was “very bad” for the organisation and would prevent it from reporting data linked to the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Russian Federation on September 18.
“We obviously believe that the action taken against the Levada Center is unwarranted”, department spokesman Mark Toner said on September 6. Its director, Lev Gudkov, said the move, which comes two weeks before parliamentary elections, amounted to “political censorship”.
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But he added that Levada’s offices were searched after it noted a decline in the popularity of the ruling United Russia party.
