Yuri Levada Analytical Center. "Levada Center" - foreign agents or independent analysts

Unfortunately, the organization's website has not been working since Monday evening for reasons beyond our control, so the statement is being published only now.

Statement

Director of the Analytical Center Yuri Levada

From the evening of September 5 and throughout September 6 and 7, the Levada Center received hundreds of calls and letters from journalists and scientists concerned about the fate of the Levada Center and the situation around our organization, as well as those who sought to express support and solidarity with us. Not being able to answer everyone who wants to get some information, I am forced to make this statement.

From August 12 to August 31, 2016, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation conducted an unscheduled documentary audit of the activities of the Levada Center for two and a half years from the last audit in February 2014 to the present. According to its results, the Ministry, without waiting for our objections, provided for by the formal verification procedure, already on the evening of September 5 announced that the Levada Center was being entered into the register of organizations performing the functions of foreign agents. Thus, the slanderous campaign unleashed against our organization received a formal legal justification. The audit was initiated and carried out after several appeals to the Ministry of Justice by member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation D.V. abuse. For all his odiousness, this character is just a mouthpiece for expressing the interests of groups that have monopolized the topic of patriotism and threats national security, and demanding under this flag the redistribution of state resources and legal immunity.

The current situation is extremely complicating the activities of our organization. I'm not talking about the inevitable reduction in the possibilities of financing our work. But the stigma of "foreign agent" itself, which in our country is understood exclusively as synonymous with "spy" and "saboteur", blocks the conduct of mass and other social polls. The fear left over from Soviet times paralyzes people, especially those related to state structures - education, medicine, government, etc. In a number of regions, we are told that employees of state institutions are prohibited from contacting representatives of organizations labeled as “foreign agents”.

In the coming days, after consultations with lawyers, we intend to challenge the received Inspection Act in court.

As many media outlets now claim, the Ministry of Justice “disclosed foreign sources of funding” for the Levada Center, although these sources were never hidden, since financial reports were regularly submitted to the relevant control bodies and tax service. This circumstance is recorded in the Verification Act itself: “... it was established that documents containing a report on their activities, on the personnel governing bodies, as well as documents on the expenditure of funds and on the use of other property, including those received from international and foreign organizations…, the Organization provides the specified information to the authorized body annually…. During the inspection of the Organization, no evidence of extremist activity was revealed” (p. 5).

This is not the first hostile campaign aimed at discrediting, if not destroying, an independent scientific team that has been conducting sociological research in our country since the autumn of 1988. Objective and verifiable data on the state of society and public opinion in the country, especially in situations of sharp changes and crises, cause an acute and painful reaction among biased politicians, officials, ideologists, since the diagnosis presented by sociologists and the picture of society is at odds with their expectations and political interests. This applies to both pro-government politicians and functionaries, and the opposition. But unlike the latter, the authorities have powerful tools to discredit and legally formalize the destruction of those who are objectionable to them.

Attempts already in 2002-2003 to take control of the scientific team of the first VTsIOM, headed by Yuri Levada, led to the creation of the ANO Yuri Levada Analytical Center.

Openly presented the program of suppression of any independent public and academic organizations in their publications Russian Institute Strategic Research (RISI). So, in the report “Methods and technologies of activity of foreign and Russian research centers, as well as research structures and universities receiving funding from foreign sources” (February 2014) were listed whole line state and public institutions receiving "funding from foreign sources and conducting ideological or propaganda work in Russia." In addition to the Russian Association political science, Center political research Russia, Russian Association for International Studies (RAMI), Institute of Sociology RAS, Russian economic school and other organizations, ANO Levada Center was also named in this list. He was credited with “... the purpose of collecting information to develop methods and tools to influence the social and political situation in the country, transferring to the US State Department ... a database of opposition activists at the regional level, containing all the necessary information for the subsequent recruitment of a “protest activist”, “influence on political processes and public opinion through the manipulation of meanings in public opinion polls, overestimation or underestimation the right indicators in survey results, promotion of advantageous positions during conferences, round tables, seminars, vigorous activity in the information space” and other motives. The Levada Center acted as "a mechanism for collecting and analyzing sociological information to manipulate public opinion and provide informational impact on the state apparatus and political institutions."

All these statements only at first glance seem to be the delusions of social outcasts or the paranoia of retired Chekists. Realistically behind this new wave of spy mania, which reproduces the worst examples of totalitarian practices in different countries stand quite cold and cynical interests of power, property and ideological control.

The very presumption of guilt of the interaction of Russian scientists and civil society figures with foreign scientists and organizations should be unacceptable as having an anti-patriotic character and hostile to our country activity.

Comprehensive and separate inspections in 2013 and 2014, on the same grounds and criteria formulated in similar documents, having established the fact of foreign funding for individual projects, ordered to refuse foreign grants.

The Center was forced to refuse to receive grants from foreign foundations for conducting sociological research, but could participate in joint projects with foreign organizations (universities, foundations, etc.), carry out orders for socially significant, cultural and marketing and other population surveys. Amendments made in 2016 to the law on NGOs and political activities, like other recent laws and regulations, open up opportunities for the complete arbitrariness of administrative bodies, since the concept of "political activity" and "foreign funding" is deliberately not defined in any way in the law, and therefore, gives rise to the selective use of repressive measures against organizations that seem undesirable for some influential power groups. After that, foreign financing began to be understood as any receipt of funds from abroad, including financing social activities(scientific, educational, charitable) by domestic funds, if they are located abroad. Funds from abroad, received as payment for purely commercial activities, have now begun to be regarded as criminal.

The real consequences of this practice of the Ministry of Justice and other departments are a sharp restriction and subsequent termination of scientific ties between Russian scientists and world science, the termination of the assimilation of world experience, methods, methodologies, concepts, informal norms and rules that is so important for Russia scientific work. One should not think that repressions of this kind threaten only sociology (as the most costly area of ​​social and humanitarian research). They will finish with sociology - they will move on to history, economics, genetics, physics and other sciences, as it was in Stalin years. The Levada Center is included in the register of foreign agents at number 141, tomorrow there will be hundreds or thousands of these organizations-agents of foreign influence. The consequences of this onset of the social reaction phase will be felt for the next 2-3 generations.

For our country, cut off from the conditions of development of modern social knowledge, which found itself in the position of a deep intellectual province, this means the prospect of further conservation of scientific archaism and degradation. Failure to understand this threatens not just with isolationism or a chronic decline in human and social capital in our country, but with its transformation into a reservation of a poor and aggressive population, comforting itself with illusions of national superiority and exclusivity. As one authoritative foreign figure wrote to me yesterday, "the future of a country that does not want to know anything about itself is sad." Such a policy of discrediting and destroying everything that is best in Russian civil society does not just disgrace the country, but more importantly, leads to the suppression of the sources of its development, stagnation, which inevitably turns into general moral, intellectual and social degradation, apathy, and the decay of the state. and society.

We are proud of the opportunity to work with foreign partners; this is not a reason to discredit us as agents, on the contrary, it is evidence of the high professionalism and quality of our research, the objectivity and reliability of the produced information product and the depth of interpretation of empirical data. This is what distinguishes the work of the Levada Center specialists from other institutions conducting public opinion polls.

The act of inspection is presented on the website of our organization along with my remarks and comments on certain points of the Act.

Director of the Levada Center, Doctor philosophical sciences, Professor L.D. Gudkov

Below you can download.

According to the law, the organization does not have the right to publish the data of the opinion poll on the presidential election.

It seems that the presidential campaign in March of this year opened the season for foreign agents. According to Interfax, citing the Vedomosti newspaper, the non-governmental research organization Levada Center will not publish the results of public opinion polls regarding the upcoming presidential elections in the Russian Federation. The reason is that the organization was recognized by the Ministry of Justice in 2016 foreign agent, about which, according to the law, the official website of the Levada Center informs its visitors: “ANO Levada Center has been forcibly entered by the Ministry of Justice into the register of non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent.” Well, the law - whether someone likes it or not - says that an organization receiving funding from abroad has no right to take part in elections and referendums in any way. She is given the not very honorary title of "foreign agent".

As Levada Center head Lev Gudkov noted, the organization will continue to conduct election-related polls, but will simply not publish their results from the start. election campaign. “Violation of the law threatens with fines and even the closure of the organization,” Gudkov explained. Please note that fines vary depending on the degree of violation. legal entity from 500 thousand to 5 million rubles.

Well, since we are talking about money, let us recall what was the reason for classifying "independent sociologists" as foreign agents. Back in 2016, activists from the Anti-Maidan movement established that Levada was hiding its foreign funding, although since 2012 it has received more than $120,000 from the United States. The source of funding is the University of Wisconsin, which, according to anti-Maidan activists, indirectly works for the Pentagon. “Activists of the movement found out that, despite the announcement that they were suspending their receipt of funding from abroad, the Levada Center receives money from the University of Wisconsin (USA). Moreover, in fact, the US Department of Defense is the end customer of the public opinion research services provided by the center. Therefore, we believe that the Levada Center should be returned to the register of foreign agents. Any activity on the territory of Russia with foreign funding should be marked,” said Nikolai Starikov, leader of the Anti-Maidan. Which was done by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation a year and a half ago.

In the sociological center itself, they denied everything, called the information about foreign funding slander, and denied it in every possible way. "It's a lie pure water, juggling, - said the director of "Levada" Lev Gudkov. “We are dealing with research, with the University of Wisconsin. This is a study of the problem of housing, family history. We have nothing to do with the US Department of Defense. And where Wisconsin takes the money is their problem, how they are financed. Holy innocence! The head of Levada knows better than anyone else that the Pentagon and the US intelligence services are far from being idiots who publicly and open channels will finance Russian public organizations involved in politics. If Mr. Gudkov considers this to be “a lie and a hoax,” he must sue! Let the court punish the "slanderers" and whiten the good name of "independent sociologists". For obvious reasons, the head of the Levada Center did not do this.

Sociologists will forgive me, but they know better than anyone else how, by formulating questions, one can tailor answers to the desired result and thereby manipulate public opinion. This technology is not new and is being used to challenge official polls conducted by government agencies. "Alternative data of independent sociologists" are picked up by the pro-Western media and bloggers, commented accordingly and, to put it mildly, distort the real state of affairs.

Of course, Levada can conduct opinion polls, but it will become much more difficult to pass them off as objective, and it will be impossible to make them public. This means that it will be impossible to fulfill orders from abroad and financial flows dwindle, and then completely dry out. As Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov noted, “of course, this is a large organization (“Levada Center” - V.S.), which has its own authority. But, unfortunately, at the request of the law, being an agent, it will not be able to carry out this activity Thank God that the employees of this organization will not be forced to wear “foreign agent” badges, as is provided, for example, by Israeli law.

The presidential elections in Russia on March 18, 2018 are, of course, a landmark and an important event in the life of our country. It would be naive to think that our enemies will passively watch what is happening. On the contrary, according to experts, as the apogee of the elections approaches, the overt and covert interference of our ill-wishers will only increase. “In fact, interference in the internal affairs of Russia is multi-vector, huge amounts of money are pumped in, annually from 70 to 90 billion rubles are sent to Russia for political activity, - said the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko. “Not for charity, not for supporting health care, culture, specifically for political activities.” The Levada Center, as a foreign agent, was the first to be taken out of the political game. Who is next?

The Prosecutor General's Office conducted an audit of one of the country's most authoritative sociological services - the Autonomous non-profit organization Yuri Levada Analytical Center. According to Yuri Chaika's department, from December 26, 2012 to March 24, 2013, 3.9 million rubles were transferred to the accounts of the Levada Center from abroad. This was told to Izvestia by a source in the Prosecutor General's Office.

The think tank received money from the American Open Society Institute, as well as from organizations in Italy, the UK, Poland, and Korea.

Already after the start of the inspection, which was conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office, the Levada Center conducted a series of polls with results that were unpleasant for the authorities. In particular, data were published that more than half of Russians agree with the assessment of United Russia as a "party of swindlers and thieves" and call Dmitry Medvedev's cabinet of ministers "ineffective."

The leaders of the Levada Center were not available for comment on the day the material was prepared.

The leadership of United Russia believes that the April polls of the center were conducted with the intent to make the inspection of the Prosecutor General's Office look like revenge on the part of the authorities.

I would emphasize the reverse causal relationship here, ”State Duma Vice Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak told Izvestia. - The Levada Center tried to make its reports, which were of a vivid oppositional nature, as public as possible in order to find a false justification for the claims of government agencies.

General director Council for National Strategy Valery Khomyakov, on the contrary, believes that it was the aforementioned polls that led to the recognition of the Levada Center as a foreign agent.

If they had conducted other polls and found out, for example, that in Russia they know little and do not respect opposition leader Alexei Navalny, then perhaps there would not have been such a statement,” Khomyakov added.

Alexei Mukhin, general director of the Center for Political Information, claims that he has heard before that the sociological center is financed from abroad.

The activity of the Levada Center raises suspicions. There are questions about the viability of the center, - says Mukhin.

Last April, the Levada Center also conducted surveys on the attitude of Russians towards political prisoners, the Bolotnaya case, and Kirovles. According to the results, a third of the respondents were in favor of ending the persecution of political opponents of the authorities, primarily the ex-head oil company Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and blogger Navalny.

The concept of a “foreign agent” arose in July 2012, when a draft law on NGOs was submitted to the State Duma by the United Russia faction, providing that all politically active NGOs funded from abroad must register with the Ministry of Justice in a separate register, where they will be given the status of "acting as a foreign agent".

After entry into force normative act The Golos Association, the Memorial Human Rights Center, the Agora Association from Kazan, and the Nizhny Novgorod Committee Against Torture were recognized as foreign agents.

Surprisingly, the attack of the 5th column on Kadyrov continues. First came the Congress of the so-called intelligentsia - oblomson. Then Piontkovsky "fired, immediately missed and hit himself a little", then they decided to bring into battle, as it seems to them, heavy artillery. Today, on the Internet, I came across a “sociological study” by the Levada Center.

I quote in full: “Most Russians consider it unacceptable when government officials threaten opposition representatives and classify those who criticize the government as “enemies of the people”. This was reported in the Levada Center. As sociologists found out, 59% of the survey participants adhere to this opinion. On the contrary, another 15% called such statements acceptable, but only 4% of respondents are “firmly convinced” of this. In addition, one in four ( 27%) could not determine their attitude towards this issue". For color, I’ll clarify that the message was taken from Rosbalt, “Rain” dripped about this today, further down the list.

When do you think you did? And who did the survey take? Painfully wild numbers. It looks like a scam, or a poll about http://aftershock.news/?q=node/368050 was conducted in the Levada Center itself or on Rain. How many people were interviewed, who was the survey participant, how was the survey conducted? In general, naked order. He became interested in what this “Levada Center” is, who created it, and who heads it, and on what money he lives and is well. Here's what turned out. Let's start with the creator of the project, whose name, as it is believed, he bears - Yuri Alexandrovich Levada ...

In fact, his name is Yuri Moiseevich Moreinis, he was born in Vinnitsa in the family of a journalist of the Vinnitsa regional newspaper "Bilshovitska Pravda" Natalia Lvovna Moreinis and medievalist historian Moisei Aleksandrovich Kogan (1907-1982), later professor and dean of the historical faculty of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute named after. Pokrovsky. [In the mid-1930s, Natalya Lvovna Moreinis remarried the writer Alexander Stepanovich Kosak, who, as a pseudonym, took the surname of the wife of his party teacher Franz Novash, who was shot in 37, Evgenia Levada. The marriage of Kosak-Levada with the mother of our hero also broke up, but the name Levada continues to live in the Center for Pseudo-Polls of Public Opinion.

Now about the history of the Center itself. The Levada Center came out of the depths of the VCIOM, which was organized and for some time headed by the notorious Tatyana Zaslavskaya. In 1992, when VTsIOM began to work, she left it and became the president of the Intercenter, created by the English professor T. Shanin with Soros' money.

In 2003, Levada and his team from VTsIOM were asked. He was, rushed into the VTsIOM-A, created by him in advance, just in case of a fire, but this name was banned. Then the Yuri Levada Center appeared. And the same Zaslavskaya again takes him under the wing, and she herself is elected the honorary president of this organization. It is clear that Soros' money is starting to work for Levada. And as you know, whoever pays the money orders the music.

Levada and Zaslavka are no more. But their work lives on. The center was headed by Levada's comrade-in-arms at VTsIOM, 70-year-old Doctor of Philosophy Lev Dmitrievich Gudkov, who turned out to be a worthy successor, and proudly carried the banner of the 5th column. His polls, supposedly of public opinion, and his interviews fully corresponded to the requests of customers. Well, it's convenient. It's not me, but the voice of the people, public opinion, you can't argue. To illustrate, here are some of his statements...

“Vladimir Putin, whose third presidential term is 100 days this week, is rapidly losing the support of his fellow citizens. Such data are contained in the results of a survey conducted by the Levada Center. According to its data, only 48% of respondents speak positively about the activities of the head of state.” (In fact, there was an increase in support).

December 2015 - Levada Center issues another batch of surveys. It turns out that the Russians consider the German Chancellor "the woman of the year." Here even the correspondent of Deutsche Welle was surprised - How is this combined with the admiration of the people for Putin? Sociologist Gudkov, without batting an eyelid, explained this paradox to an ignorant German:

“First of all, of course, she stands out for her principled position in connection with the migration crisis in Europe - such a clearly defined moral position, a humanistic position, among European politicians. The Russians are very impressed, at least those who follow the events in Europe. Secondly, Merkel is perceived as a strong figure in opposition to Putin. She focuses on herself all the expectations or illusions of the opposition as a person who takes a moral position in relation to the aggressively authoritarian and adventurous power of Putin. Merkel, like Margaret Thatcher once, is a figure of an iron, strong-willed politician who defends European and Western values. It's a pretty solid image."

That's what the sociologist said. She is the hope of the opposition, and we have opposition, 5 percent. So the first place was secured by a majority of 5%, that's the whole sociology. This is how polls are done, and after that stuffing.

It is surprising that such a serious public matter as a public opinion poll is carried out by a foreign agent acting at the expense of foreign donors. An agent who is in opposition to the government, which is supported by the vast majority of the Russian population.

Here we recall the words of Kadyrov about the enemies of the people. If the opposition, including the Levada Center, hates Putin, considering him their enemy, and he is supported by 90% of the population, then simple arithmetic suggests that this opposition is the enemy of the people, and they act like enemies.

The Levada Center is tightly integrated into the international system of organizations engaged in subversive or near-subversive activities against Russian state. If someone thought that the authorities did not know anything about the activities of pseudo-sociologists and their inquisition on foreign intelligence services, I will disappoint you. They knew.

Two years ago, the RUSSIAN INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES CENTER FOR ACTUAL POLICY prepared a Report

"Methods and technologies of activity of foreign and Russianresearch centers, as well as research structures and universities that receive funding from foreign sources.

It also talks about the Levada Center. Here are some excerpts from the report:

"Autonomous non-profit organization Analytical Center Yuri Levada (ANO Levada Center)Levada Center, as a mechanism for collecting and analyzing sociological information, is important tool manipulating public opinion and providing information impact on the state apparatus and political institutions.

The Levada Center fulfills orders from near-government foreign funds, the results of which go directly to foreign government departments. In addition, the Levada Center, as a non-state structure, has no legal restrictions on the transfer of its own "field notebooks" and information bases to foreign customers.

At the same time, Levada Center experts constantly put forward the thesis that the discrepancy between their data and the election results means the presence of falsifications and fraud during the elections themselves. These statements are widely circulated by foreign media, from where, already in the status of "reliable sources", they are published in Russian opposition media.

Financing. Grantors include the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the MacArthur Foundation.

Reference: According to information on the website of the National Endowment for Democracy, since 2009 NED has funded 4 projects of the Levada Center: Public opinion during the 2009 elections to the Moscow City Duma; Quantitative study on the effectiveness of PR strategies for NGOs; a series of interviews on xenophobia and nationalism after the events on Manezhnaya Square in December 2010; polls related to the 2011 parliamentary and 2012 presidential elections.

In particular, the latest grant received $71,242 for the following purposes: “to conduct a series of public opinion surveys on upcoming presidential elections and elections in State Duma". The first surveys served as the baseline survey, during the period election campaign, followed by two additional post-election surveys. The Levada Center will also conduct six monthly polls to monitor public opinion regarding the potential impact of the elections on social and political issues in Russia.

The result was the report "Russian parliamentary elections: the electoral process under an authoritarian regime." The report includes materials from surveys of participants in the rallies "For fair elections"In December 2011 - February 2012, financed by the fund of organizers of rallies and Novaya Gazeta. Direct executors - L.D. Gudkov, B.V. Dubin, N.A. Zorkaya, M.A. Plotko.

NED also finances projects in Russia through the Polish Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). In 2009, the MacArthur Foundation allocated $150,000 to the Levada Center for the project “Monitoring Socio-Economic Transformations in Russia”.

Roundabout financing options and channels for receiving unaccounted funds have long been established around the Levada Center - from "black cash" to "payment of fees for consultations and lectures", crowdfunding, conclusion of contracts for commercial sub-organizations of the Center, "donations" of domestic interested commercial structures, etc. .d.

Foreign contacts. Levada Center's partners include: The EU-Russia Center (Belgium), Center for the Study of Public Policy (UK), government agency USA by international development(USAID, USA), Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Germany, Ford Foundation (USA), MacArthur Foundation in Russia (USA), Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung, Germany , Open Society Institute.

Leading employees of the Center were trained in research companies in the US and Western Europe. Levada Center is included in the list of independent think tanks in Europe, presented by Freedom House. Data from the Levada Center was used in compiling The Economist Special Report on Russia.

Influence at Russian politics. An analysis of the tasks within the framework of these grants shows that their goal is to collect sociological information to develop methods and tools for influencing the social and political situation in Russia, as well as to search for the social base of the opposition for subsequent work with it.

For the National Endowment for Democracy, the Levada Center prepared the report “Prospects for Civil Society in Russia” 2011. The report was prepared based on 103 in-depth interviews with leaders of non-governmental organizations and civil associations in 6 large Russian cities in October 2010-February 2011. Thus, The Levada Center handed over to the US State Department, through which NED is funded, a database of opposition activists at the regional level, containing all the necessary information for the subsequent involvement in the work of the “protest activist”, from personal data to the specifics of political views.

In 2011, the Polish Institute and the Levada Center received funding for the Training program for Russian policy and opinion makers. The task was to select 10 such promising Russians for further training. Program duration: November 2012 – March 2013.

The Levada Center, in partnership with the International Society "Memorial" (with the support of the Open Society Institute), conducts a series of discussion seminars with the participation of Russian and foreign experts. Seminars of the second half of 2012 were devoted to the discussion of the international experience of social and political movements in Poland, Czechoslovakia, the USA, the USSR and Russia. These workshops explored the experience and methodology of coups and "regime change".

Conclusion. The Levada Center receives foreign funding and is politically active and therefore falls under the law on NGOs acting as foreign agents.”

ALL PHOTOS

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation included the center for sociological research "Analytical Center of Yuri Levada" in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a "foreign agent". In July, the pro-Kremlin Anti-Maidan movement asked the agency to check Yuri Levada's organization for foreign funding. From 12 to 31 August, checks were carried out at the center. Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of the Levada Center, told Interfax that the organization would seek to be removed from the register of "agents."

"The fact that the organization complies with the characteristics of a non-profit organization acting as a foreign agent was established during an unscheduled documentary check by the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Justice for Moscow," the Ministry of Justice website says.

Director of the Levada Center Lev Gudkov said in a conversation with Dozhd that the center could stop its work if the decision of the Ministry of Justice could not be appealed, the organization would close in this case. He called the inclusion in the list of "agents" a political order and linked it to the polls on the rating of United Russia, which showed a decrease in interest in the party. "It was a pretext or a pretext," Gudkov said. According to the results of a survey conducted on August 26-29 among 1600 people over 18 in 137 settlements 48 regions of the Russian Federation (statistical error does not exceed 3.4%), the approval rating of "United Russia" has decreased from 39 to 31% of all respondents. Russian President Vladimir Putin attributed this to criticism from competing parties.

Aleksey Grazhdankin, deputy director of the center, said: "We are primarily focused on domestic Russian clients, we are reducing the number of contracts with foreign clients and we hope that this status will be removed from us."

The head of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Fedotov, said that the Levada Center was included in the list of "foreign agents" because of the imperfection of the law. According to the head of the HRC, with the same success, one can include in the register of foreign agents Russian fund world or the Russian Authors' Society, since "they all receive cash or other property from foreign sources and are engaged in public activities that our law makes it easy to interpret as political.” He believes that the organization can be removed from the list by changing its status to “commercial”.

The functionaries of the "Anti-Maidan" stated that the "Levada Center" violates the federal law N121 "On foreign agents". They claim that the center conducts research in the interests of the US Department of Defense commissioned by the University of Wisconsin and allegedly received almost $120,000 from the US in 2016 for this. As evidence, the movement posted a link to one of the US government websites, the page of which contains data similar to the coordinates of the Levada Center.

Topics to be covered in the focus groups include how participants perceive their housing situation and other aspects of their socioeconomic status, their relationship to housing issues, major social and political attitudes, their perceptions of the United States, the military conflict in Ukraine and other major international issues, their assessment of recent government policies and the state of affairs in the country, major developments in economic conditions respondents over the past one or two years and other topics," Anti-Maidan quotes a description of a poll project allegedly paid for by the United States.

Levada Center Director Lev Gudkov then commented on this information. "We are dealing with research, with the University of Wisconsin. We have nothing to do with the US Department of Defense. And where Wisconsin takes the money is their problem, how they are financed," Gudkov said.

Same social movement"Antimaydan" complained to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yury Chaika about the Dozhd TV channel and its website. The organization, which set itself the goal of preventing the "orange revolution" in Russia, asked Chaika to organize a check of publications on the channel's website. They allegedly do not mention that the terrorist organization ISIS (ISIS, DAISH - is banned in the Russian Federation. - Note. site) is prohibited in Russia as required by federal law.

Under a law that came into force on November 21, 2012, foreign-funded political NGOs are required to register as "foreign agents". In 2013, the Ministry of Justice received the right to recognize NGOs as "foreign agents" at its own discretion.

This is not the only limitation for NGOs. In June 2015, a law came into force that allows foreign and international non-governmental organizations to be given the status of undesirable in Russia and banned from working in the country if they pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order, the defense capability or security of the state.