Investigation into the attack on Lev Shlosberg terminated and he is declared a “foreign agent”

// by Nina Petlyanova, Novaya Gazeta, 12/01/2015

Pskov autonomous non-profit organisation “Centre of Social Projects “Renaissance” will shortly appeal in court against being enlisted in the register of “foreign agents”. This was reported to Novaya Gazeta by Lev Shlossberg, head of the autonomous non-profit organisation, MP in Pskov, leader of the local branch of the YABLOKO party and Editor-in-Chief of the Pskovskaya Guberniya (the Province of Pskov) newspaper. The decision on the recognition of the Centre of Social Projects “Renaissance” was adopted by the Ministry of Justice on the eve of New Year holidays – on December 30.

– This decision is provocative, including in relation to the Ministry of Justice, Lev Shlossberg told Novaya Gazeta. – We know definite officials in Pskov, who have been trying to reach this for two years and finally they have managed to push through the decision despite the absence of any appropriate evidence, basing solely on the personal motives of political revenge.

According to the head of the “Renaissance” centre, the inspectors of the Pskov Region Department of the Ministry of Justice held their last audit of the [non-profit] organisation in October-November 2014.

– We received the report of the inspection in December, and their Act did not contain any comments related to foreign funding, Shlossberg said. – The centre did not get any notifications from the Ministry of Justice relating to the status of “foreign agent” either. Since 2012 the NGO “Renaissance” has not implemented any international projects and, accordingly, has not received any funds from abroad.

As a reminder, troubles have been haunting Lev Shlossberg since August 2014, from the very moment when he began investigating the death of the paratroopers of the 76th Pskov Division of the Airborne Troops. Novaya Gazeta wrote about the death of at least 12 soldiers and there were many publications on this subject in Pskovakaya Guberniya. Lev Shlosberg personally attended the funeral of one of the paratroopers of the 76th Division. According to the official version, the Pskov paratroopers were killed during a training exercise in the Rostov region [in Russia]. However, Shlossberg, an MP and journalist, found evidence of their participation in military operations on the territory of Ukraine.

And at night of August 29, Shlosberg was attacked by unidentified persons and severely beaten in Pskov (see Novaya Gazeta No dated 01.09.2014). On August 30, the Investigative Department of the Interior Ministry in Pskov opened a criminal case under Article 115 of the Criminal Code “Intentional infliction of slight bodily harm on hooliganism”. And already in December, the investigating authorities suspended the investigation of the case with the wording “due to the lack of suspects”. According to the lawyers, this was nonsense: the investigators officially refused to look for the criminals.

– The very status of a “foreign agent” does not prohibit the activities of an NGO, but in doing so the officials are trying to put us in a bad light and humiliate, Shlosberg says. – The purpose of the detractors from the authorities is discreditation associated with my political and social activities.

The original publication: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/66781.html