Prominent human rights activist Vanessa Kogan linked to Hungarian-American billionaire investor George Soros is all set to be expelled by the Russian government after the former president Dmitry Medvedev claimed that there’s an organised campaign by international organizations to foment unrest in the world’s largest country.
Kogan, the director of the Stichting Justice Initiative project, admitted to the British newspaper The Guardian that the Russian authorities have informed her about the revocation of her resident permit. With Moscow cancelling her residence permit, Kogan has two weeks to leave the country.
The Stitching Justice Initiative project is an NGO which reportedly provides legal support to Russians who are victims of the human rights abuses. It has been cagey about its funding in recent years but back in 2010 and 2011, it was financially supported by the Dutch government and the Hungarian billionaire George Soros through his ‘Open Society’ pressure group, which was deemed as undesirable and banned by the Russian government.
Kogan’s organisation has been working in the North Caucasus region, helping people who have been allegedly victimised at the hands of the authorities. Its activities in the Muslim majority region has allegedly stoked tensions with local leaders, such as Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Republic of Chechnya.
Deputy chairman of Security Council of Russia says NGOs exploiting networks in Russia to foment unrest in the country
Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council on Thursday told reporters that well-funded foreign groups were exploiting networks in Russia to “exacerbate the internal political situation in certain regions, including through Russian non-profit groups they associate with”.
He further added that such NGOs went to the extent of depending on the internet media, using several dubious reasons to rewrite the events of our national history. He termed it a “large-scale information campaign, being conducted to discredit the leadership of some specific territories and Federal Subjects”.
Earlier last month, the country’s State Duma argued a new law that would expand the scope of what constitute foreign agents, allowing them to apply to not only to NGOs and media organisations but also to ordinary citizens. Two years back, the United States incarcerated a Russian citizen, Maria Butina, stating her to be a foreign agent working for the Russian intelligence agencies. The US authorities had then alleged that she had infiltrated into conservative-leaning organisations to advance better ties between Washington and Kremlin. She was incarcerated for 5 months, some of it in solitary confinement, before being repatriated to Russia.
Soros’s OSF has a history of funding highly biased political NGOs across the world and its interference in India
The link between Vanessa with Hungarian-American George Soros is particularly intriguing, given that the philanthropist’s Open Society Foundation (OSF) is well known for funding highly biased political NGOs worldwide. For instance, the list of grantees of the OSF includes a number of Israeli NGOs that also includes some beneficiaries that deny the legitimacy of Israel.OSF has also funded Palestinian NGOs Al-Haq and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, both of which have ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
Earlier this year, speaking at the world economic forum, Soros had said he will commit $1 billion to start a global university to ‘fight nationalists’, whom he referred to as ‘authoritarian governments’. He accused the Indian Prime Minister of ‘creating a Hindu nationalist state’.
Soros’s OSF grasped stronghold in India during the Obama regime. Ever since its entry in India, it has tried to interlope in the internal affairs of the nation through the vast and interconnected network of organisations funded by him. These organisations play a vital role in manipulating the original narrative and take the help of the judiciary and media to hinder the national interest.
The Human Rights Law Network has been a chief campaigner against the Indian sedition laws and has even been providing legal aid to the Rohingya Muslims. The French NGO, Sherpa, that filed the complaint against the Rafael deal is also funded by the OSF. Another such organisation facilitating the agenda of George Soros is Amnesty International which is also funded by the OSF. The organisation also told the US lawmakers that the Citizenship Amendment Act stands in violation of not just the Indian Constitution but also international human rights law.
