The Ministry of Justice has begun checking the Yekaterinburg «Yeltsin Center» for the activities of a «foreign agent». This was announced by Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko, his words are reported by TASS.
“As for the check, we have started it. I don’t remember which of the deputies sent us such a request, but we are checking,” Sviridenko said at a meeting of the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in internal affairs.
“All financial statements are absolutely transparent and published on the website of the presidential center. Every year we report on the activities of the Yeltsin Center, including financial, to the Board of Trustees, whose members are published on the Yeltsin.ru website. We are confident that an audit by the Ministry of Justice will confirm: there are no grounds for declaring the «Yeltsin Center» «foreign agent» no and cannot be,” the center’s press service told 66.RU.
The day after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Yeltsin Center issued a statement demanding that it be stopped.
“In 1991, Russia and Ukraine jointly made the choice of their fate — abandoning the legacy of the USSR, they began a difficult path to the community of civilized countries, to democracy and the market. After 30 years, Russia and Ukraine found themselves on opposite sides of the front line. This is an unthinkable disaster for both countries and their peoples,” the publication said. It has now been removed from the site and is only available in the web archive.
Updated at 12:20 pm. Added a commentary from Yeltsin Center.