They supported thousands of projects in north-west Russia. Today, the Barents Secretariat became “undesirable”
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office is classifying the Barents Secretariat as an "undesirable organisation" arguing it stimulates protest activities and promotes LGBT communities.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has classified the Barents Secretariat as an “undesirable organisation”, claiming it stimulates protest activity and promotes LGBT communities.
The decision was announced on the Telegram channel of the State Duma Commission for the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs, which reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office had designated the Norwegian Barents Secretariat as “undesirable”.
“I was not aware of this,” said Kenneth Stålsett, head of the secretariat, when contacted by the Barents Observer on Wednesday evening.
“But if that is the case, it worries me very little and has very little impact on us, as Russia is not part of our mission,” Stålsett added.
However, Vasily Piskarev, chairman of the State Duma Commission for the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs, appears to take a different view. In the Telegram post, he said:
“The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office supported the Commission’s proposal to designate the activities of the Norwegian NGO Barents Secretariat as undesirable in our country. This organisation, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is involved in stimulating protest activity and exerting informational pressure on Russia through grant projects.”
Piskarev continued:
“Furthermore, the Barents Secretariat has long been engaged in promoting and supporting LGBT communities in Russia and has helped strengthen their ties with similar organisations abroad. We welcome the Prosecutor General’s Office’s decision and consider it fair and logical. We will continue our work to identify subversive organisations that act to the detriment of our country.”
The Barents Secretariat was established in 1993 to support the Norwegian chair of the Barents Regional Council. It later became permanent and supported about 200 Norwegian-Russian projects annually.
The main office is in the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes. Until 2022, the secretariat had local offices in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Narjan-Mar. For some years, there was also an office in Petrozavodsk.
Although the secretariat is owned by the three northernmost counties in Norway, its funding comes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.
Over the years, hundreds of millions of kroner (tens of millions euros) were granted by the secretariat to joint Norwegian - Russian projects in the sphere of people-to-people cooperation.
The Barents Secretariat is the sixth organisation in Norway decleared "undesirable" by Russia's Prosecutor General. The others are the Bellona Foundation, the Human Right House Foundation, the Barents Observer, Nature and Youth and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.
Under Russian law, being designated an "undesirable organisation" makes all cooperation with such an organisation a criminal offense that can be punished with heavy fines or even imprisonment.
Even sharing content from such organisations, including on social media, is illegal.
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Note to reader: The Barents Observer was partner with the Barents Secretariat in the period from 2005 until October 2015.
