The Ecology Watchdog of the North Caucasus, an environmental NGO involved in battling wildfires in southern Russia, has been labelled a "foreign agent," Russia's Justice Ministry announced on Sept. 14.
The decision was made after an “unplanned inspection of the documents” revealed that the NGO met the criteria to be named “foreign agent,” the ministry said in an online statement. Under a law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2012, NGOs which receive foreign funding and are engaged in vaguely-defined “political activity” are required to identify themselves as “foreign agents.”
