The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), the Canada-based assembly of Ukrainian communities abroad, has been branded an “undesirable organization” in a decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office, which said it posed a threat to “the constitutional framework and security of the Russian Federation.”
The Russian authorities announced the decision late on July 11, adding that the Congress would be included in the official blacklist of “foreign and international non-government organizations” which are unwelcome in Russia.
Such legislation was introduced in Russia in 2015, giving prosecutors the authority to extra-judicially declare foreign and international organizations “undesirable” and therefore prohibit their activities with the country’s territory under penalty of heavy fines and imprisonment.
The law was strongly criticized by human rights groups and international organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as oppressing civil liberties and activism, as well as freedom of speech and the press.
A number of human rights groups and NGOs have been banned in Russia, including the Open Society Foundations founded by American billionaire George Soros, or the Britain-based Open Russia led by Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, a Russian businessman and formerly imprisoned opposition leader.
Banning the Ukrainian World Congress was initially proposed in July 2015, when the Federation Council, the Russian parliament’s upper house, presented a so-called “Patriotic stop list” of 12 “potentially undesirable” organizations. Apart from the Congress, another international assembly of Ukrainian non-government organizations, the Global Ukrainian Coordination Council, was also proposed to be black listed.
In its reaction issued the next day, the Ukrainian World Congress called the July 11 decision “a further attempt to eliminate Ukrainian community life in Russia.”
“It highlights Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fear that the democratic principles championed by the Ukrainian people will bring an end to his kleptocratic regime,” the organization said.
“Neither the Ukrainian World Congress nor its member organizations pose any threat to the national security of Russia,” the assembly’s official website quoted its leader Paul Grod as saying.
“We stand with the peace-loving people of Russia who wish to live in a state that respects the dignity of its people. UWC calls upon the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops and security forces from eastern Ukraine and Crimea and end the illegal occupation, human rights abuses and ongoing military aggression against the Ukrainian people.”
The real question is why doesn’t Vladimir Putin focus on making life better for the Russian people rather than on making it worse for the people of Ukraine, while fabricating an imaginary external threat, the organization added.
“Prohibiting the people of Russia from cooperating or working with UWC is just another attempt to intimidate, oppress and further assimilate the Ukrainian people living in Russia. Although this ban is another badge of honor for UWC, we are very concerned for the safety of the leaders and members of the Ukrainian community organizations living in the Russian Federation. We know all too well that the Russian government does not hesitate to intimidate or execute its political opposition both at home and abroad.”
The World Ukrainian Congress was established in 1967, and it currently unites numerous organizations that represent nearly 20 million ethnic Ukrainians living in 62 countries.
Russia, despite waging war against Ukraine since 2014, still hosts the world’s biggest Ukrainian diaspora. According to the 2010 census, at least 1.9 million ethnic Ukrainians lived in the country.
