Romanian-American democracy organisation declared undesirable in Russia

The Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a democracy aid organisation established by the US German Marshall Fund and the Romanian Foreign Ministry, has been added to a “list of foreign and international non-governmental organisations whose activities are considered undesirable in the Russian Federation,” reports Balkaninsight.com. Several other US non-governmental organisations are on that list. The ban was imposed under a Russian federal law that provides measures against “persons involved in violations of the fundamental human rights and freedoms” of Russian citizens. According to a press release from the Russian Ministry of Justice, the Deputy Attorney-General signed the decision on June 30. The Bucharest-based Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (BST) was launched in October 2007 as a partnership between the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. It was among the first projects dedicated to the Black Sea region that have been proposed in the American nongovernmental environment, in the context of advancing the Euro-Atlantic democratic community to this area, according to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. BST is funded by several US-based institutions and organisations such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ford Foundation and the Mott Foundation, as well as the Latvian and Romanian governments. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com