UPDATE: On June 2, 2017, Valentina Cherevatenko was formally charged with “malicious evasion” of legal requirements set out in Russia’s law on “foreign agents.” In a statement published on the same day, the European Union External Action Service acknowledged Cherevatenko’s “outstanding work on human rights education, peace building, and humanitarian issues” and flagged that “[Russia’s] practice of declaring NGOs as "foreign agents" restricts civil society and impedes the exercise of fundamental freedoms.” The trial date is pending.

(Moscow) – A Russian human rights activist is facing criminal charges for allegedly failing to comply with the “foreign agents” law, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 27, 2016, Russian authorities notified Valentina Cherevatenko, a prominent rights activist in the South of Russia, that they were bringing criminal proceedings against her for “malicious evasion” of legal requirements set out in the “foreign agents” law. Investigators alleged that as chair of the Women of the Don Foundation for Civil Society Development, Cherevatenko had violated article 330.1 – “malicious evasion of the duty to file the documents required for inclusion in the register of nonprofit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent.”

Click to expand Image Valentina Cherevatenko at the fortieth anniversary of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Moscow, Russia, May 2016 © 2016 Vadim Karastelev, Moscow Helsinki Group