Putin is suffocating Russia

In the tumult and uncertainty that marked Russia after the Soviet Union imploded, a vital lifeline was extended from the West. The U.S. government, as well as foundations and philanthropies, responded generously. Financier George Soros’ Open Society Foundations provided grants that sustained many impoverished scientists. The MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy provided critical support to civil society, education and human rights.

Now, President Vladimir Putin is forcing these institutions out of Russia as he tries to destroy the nongovernment organizations that create a vital two-way link in any democracy between the rulers and the ruled.

The latest move, announced Tuesday, is to declare the NED an “undesirable” organization under the terms of a law that Mr. Putin signed in May. The law bans groups from abroad who are deemed a “threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, its defense capabilities and its national security.”

The charge against the NED is patently ridiculous. NED grantees in Russia last year ran the gamut of civil society. They advocated transparency in public affairs, fought corruption and promoted human rights, freedom of information and freedom of association, among other things. All these activities make for a healthy democracy but are seen as threatening from the Kremlin’s ramparts.

The new law on “undesirables” comes in addition to one signed in 2012 that gave authorities the power to declare organizations “foreign agents” if they engaged in any kind of politics and receive money from abroad. The designation, borrowed from the Stalin era, implies espionage.

While the NED is the first organization to be labeled “undesirable,” on July 5 the Dynasty Foundation, which had provided millions of dollars for science and education in Russia, reported that it was closing after being labeled a “foreign agent.”

Others are feeling the chill. On July 24 the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation of Flint, Mich., an independent philanthropy that had supported community education in Russia and contributed more than $25 million since the early 1990s, announced that it would no longer support organizations in Russia after being put on a list of potentially undesirable organizations.

On July 21 the MacArthur Foundation, which had provided more than $173 million in grants in Russia since 1992 to further higher education, human rights and nuclear nonproliferation, said it was closing in Moscow after being put on the hit list.

Mr. Putin fears any competition or dissent. In pursuit of absolute power, he is suffocating his own society.