Law 'Threatens Future' of Russian Pollster

In Moscow, independent polling agency the Levada Centre faces the threat of closure, according to its head Lev Gudkov, after government officials insisted it register as a 'foreign agent', involved in political activity and in receipt of foreign funds.

The Centre was established in 2003 by former execs of the state-owned All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research. Levada is one of a number of organisations to be investigated recently under the new law, which requires organisations to insert the phrase 'foreign agents' in all their materials, submit to financial audits and issue six-monthly reports on their activities.

Russian authorities say the law aims to guard against outside influence in internal politics. Prominent human rights and civil society groups have refused to register, according to sources, and last month election watchdog NGO Golos became the first organisation to suffer one of the heavy fines imposed.

The Levada Centre has received a warning that it is in breach of regulations: according to Gudkov's statement, published on the Centre's web site, this puts the Centre in 'an extremely difficult position, in effect forcing it to cease its activity as an independent sociological research organisation, carrying out systematic polls of public opinion in Russia'.

Gudkov says foreign funding accounts for between 1.5% and 3% of the centre's budget each year, and told the Russian Service of Radio Free Europe (www.rferl.org ) that under the new widened interpretation of the NGO law, 'any of our partnerships - even if we work with an organization represented here in Russia but which potentially has a foreign source of financing' could put the centre itself into the category of 'foreign agent'.

Web site: www.levada.ru/eng .