Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has approved a law which will tighten controls on civil rights groups funded from abroad, his press office said on Saturday.
The law, which was cleared by the upper house of parliament earlier in July, will force non-governmental organisations (NGOs) engaging in "political activity" to register with the justice ministry as "foreign agents" and to file a report to officials every quarter.
Opposition groups say Putin is trying to silence groups whose criticism of his human rights record has undercut his credibility and helped fuel seven months of protests against his rule, the biggest since he came to power in 2000.
Some NGOs have vowed to ignore or circumvent the law, while its critics note that the vague definition of “political activity” could be applied against a wide range of initiatives and could be used to suppress dissent.
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