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Moscow Blacklists Russian NGO Office That Announced Soldiers' Deaths In Ukraine


Russia's Justice Ministry has placed the Saint Petersburg branch of the Soldiers' Mothers rights group on a blacklist of NGO's acting as "foreign agents."

The moves comes a day after Ella Polyakova and Sergei Krivenko, two members of the Russian presidential human rights council, announced more than 100 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine on August 13 near Snizhnye while helping pro-Russian separatists fight Ukrainian troops.

Polyakova heads the Soldiers' Mothers branch in Saint Petersburg.

The Justice Ministry placed the office on the blacklist under a controversial 2012 law requiring many NGOs which receive funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents."

Under the law, every public statement must be accompanied by a notice that the speaker represents "an organization fulfilling the functions of a foreign agent."

Russian denies its soldiers are fighting in Ukraine.

Based on ministry’s statement -- minjust.ru

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

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