ADVERTISEMENTRussia’s upper parliament, the Federation Council, has adopted a motion to prevent foreign powers interfering in its internal affairs.
It has set up a special committee to oversee the protection of state sovereignty.
The body believes Western governments have stepped up their bids to influence internal affairs.
Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Russian Upper House of Foreign Affairs Committee, says that foreign powers will try to meddle in next year’s presidential election.
“There is no doubt that during the time that remains prior to the presidential election in Russia slated for next March we will face very active and consecutive attempts of the United States and their NATO allies to interfere in the election campaign,” Kosachev said this week.
He is convinced that there is organised state funding involved, whether individually or collectively. These bodies, he believes, have increased the financing of organisations that spread propaganda.
The West is building a propaganda machine, he says, that is “aimed at making attempts to directly pressure the leadership of the Russian Federation, provoke internal political destabilisation, support the opposition, resist to Russia’s foreign policy, including in the information area”, according to Sputninnews.com.
Funding to Russian NGOs, a parliament document claims, has risen from 70 million US dollars in 2012 to 1.4 billion (62 million to 1.25billion euros) in 2015.
The Council wants the Russian government to carry out a comparative analysis of legislation in other countries in the most vulnerable areas, such as elections, political parties, NGOs, business, media and social networks. This should be done in order to amend Russia’s legislation accordingly to protect the country from internal interference.
Other plans include introducing a plan to identify undesirable NGOs that may be working against Russia’s economic and political interest.