The Ministry of Justice included the German NGO MitOst e.V. in the register of “undesirable” organizations. and The John Smith Trust from the UK. This follows from the update of the Ministry of Justice register, which was drawn attention to by the OVD-Info project.
Decisions to recognize these organizations as “undesirable” were made by the Prosecutor General’s Office on June 20 and 26, respectively.
MitOst e.V. is a Berlin-based non-profit organization that describes itself (.pdf) as “promoting cultural exchange, active citizenship, social cohesion and sustainable development in cities across cultural, sectoral and linguistic boundaries.” MitOst writes that it has more than 1.5 thousand association members, including participants from Russia and Ukraine.
The John Smith Trust is a foundation dedicated to helping leaders from Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus build fairer, more sustainable and inclusive societies. The foundation provides scholarships for leadership programs in the UK.
As deputy Andrei Lugovoy reports, he wrote a denunciation against The John Smith Trust. In his opinion, the foundation “for many years has been recruiting agents to work against Russia, preparing conditions for the overthrow of state power and the defeat of the country in the Northern Military District.”
“Behind all the pompous words about leadership and development there is a cunning calculation of MI employees -6 receive information of interest to them and potential contacts for further recruitment,” wrote Lugovoi.