The Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has added the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based global research and analysis group, to its list of undesirable organizations.
"After researching the materials sent to the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office, it was decided to consider the nongovernmental organization Jamestown Foundation undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation," the prosecutor's press service said on April 7.
The Jamestown Foundation was founded in 1984 to support Soviet defectors. Its currently stated mission is to inform and educate policymakers about events and trends that it regards as being of current strategic importance to the United States.
The Prosecutor-General's Office said the foundation's experts "are promoting the secession of North Caucasus regions from Russia, inciting ethnic separatism," without elaborating.
The Russian Justice Ministry was notified to include the foundation on the list of undesirable organizations.
A 2015 law allows Russian prosecutors to shut down "undesirable" organizations if they are deemed to be a threat to Russia's national interests.
Related legislation requires nongovernmental organizations that receive funding from foreign sources and engage in political activity within Russia to declare themselves "foreign agents."
The foundation's activities "constitute a threat to the fundamentals of the constitutional system and security of the Russian Federation," the prosecutor's statement said.
