Death of Dynasty Foundation Would Deal Major Blow to Russian Science | News | The Moscow Times

The potential closure of a leading scientific foundation that was placed this week on the Justice Ministry’s list of “foreign agents” would deal a colossal blow to the country’s scientific community, prominent Russian scientists said Tuesday.

The Dynasty Foundation, established in 2002 by telecommunications mogul Dmitry Zimin, was added Monday to the Justice Ministry’s list of “foreign agents,” a label applied to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive funding from abroad and engage in loosely defined “political activities.”

The foreign funding that the Justice Ministry claims Dynasty is receiving in fact comes from Zimin’s personal bank accounts, which are kept abroad.

Despite Putin’s alleged questioning of the Justice Ministry’s decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov defended the move earlier Tuesday, saying that Dynasty’s inclusion on the “foreign agents” list did not reflect a problem with the legislation, Interfax reported.

Alexei Kudrin, a former Russian finance minister who currently heads the Committee of Civil Initiatives foundation, wrote Monday night on Twitter that the fact Dynasty landed on the “foreign agents” list represented a serious flaw in the legislation.

The wide-ranging reaction to the Justice Ministry’s decision also sparked debate about the nature of the “foreign agents” law. The Vedomosti newspaper reported Tuesday that the Justice Ministry and Russia’s presidential Human Rights Council have expressed a willingness to drop the law on foreign agents, given last week’s adoption of controversial legislation on “undesirable organizations.”