Human rights activists believe that the change to the law "On public control…" of 2018
discriminates against NGOs like "Man and Law". According to Federal law No. 76 (article 10,
part 3), public organizations that perform the functions of a foreign agent are actually prohibited
from nominating their candidates for membership in Public Monitoring Commissions. The
purpose of such an amendment is to "strengthen the requirements for evaluating candidates for
membership in the PMC". However, organizations that are foreign agents, according to the
amendment, are equated to organizations caught in extremist activities, to people with
outstanding criminal records, incapacitated people and people with close relatives who are
serving their sentences in prison. Human rights activists believe that such equalization is
inappropriate, since representatives of non-governmental organizations can conscientiously
perform the work of public observers in places of detention. At the same time, many candidates
have specialized education in the field of law, psychology, medicine, etc. According to lawyers,
adding "foreign agents" to the register may lead to additional checks by supervisory authorities,
but it may not restrict rights.
In 2016, the human rights organization "Man and Law", already included in the register of
"foreign agents", nominated its candidate for the 4th convocation of the PMC for Mari El
Republic. The Public Chamber approved the candidate. However, in 2019, it refused to include
human rights defender Sergei Poduzov in the PMC for Mari El Republic, citing the fact that he is
a representative of an organization which is a foreign agent, without evaluating his professional
qualities in any way. At the same time, employees and volunteers of the organization "Man and
Law" were members of the Public Monitoring Commission for Mari El Republic from the first
convocation in 2008 and in different years they headed the regional PMC.
