The European parliament on Thursday passed a resolution expressing serious concerns about the recently adopted repressive laws and their arbitrary enforcement in Russia, and reminding Moscow of its international legal obligations to protect freedom of association, expression and assembly.
In Thursday's resolution, the MEPs said they were disappointed a new law that requires Russian non-commercial organizations engaged in political activities and financed from abroad to register as "foreign agent."
Besides, the new laws impose further restrictions, additional administrative burdens and even possible imprisonment on the NGO community. Notably, the new measure cannot be compared to any legislation or practice existing in the Western world.
However, Russian authorities insist that the new laws are aimed at preventing foreign nations from influencing the country's internal politics. Incidentally, foreign-funded NGOs and Western nations, particularly the United States, were blamed for inciting the widespread protests that followed President Vladimir Putin's disputed re-election in May 2012.
In the resolution adopted Thursday, the European MEPs also expressed concerns over the the negative consequences of the adoption of a federal law on "homosexual propaganda".
Nevertheless, they welcomed the recent re-opening of proceedings in the case of the 2006 murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a staunch Kremlin critic who exposed several human rights abuses by the Russian army in Chechnya. They, however, noted with concern that the question of who ordered the murder is unlikely to emerge from the case.
In addition, the MEP's deplored the allegedly politically motivated nature of opposition leader Alexei Navalny´s prosecution. Incidentally, Navalny, had led massive protests in Moscow after Putin's re-election, is currently facing at least two trials on charges of embezzlement.
Navalny has rejected all the charges brought against him by the Federal Investigative Committee as politically motivated as well as "blatantly fabricated." He has also accused President Putin of personally ordering the case against him, and dismissed the charges as "complete nonsense."
Further, the MEPs urged Russia to commission an independent inquiry into last year's violence in Moscow's central Bolotnaya Square, particularly into the alleged excessive use of force against demonstrators.
Incidentally, about 12 anti-Putin activists are currently facing trial over charges of their involvement in "mass riots" in Bolotnaya Square that descended into violence on the eve of Putin's 2012 inauguration for a third term as Russia's president.
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