Tell Bush to Protect Russian NGOs

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

By fax: +1-202-456-0200

Dear President Bush,

I am writing to express my grave concern over a bill entitled 'Amendments to Several Laws of the Russian Federation', which passed its first reading in the State Duma on November 23. If enacted, the law would put Russian NGOs at grave risk of increased official interference in their work, and foreign and international NGOs would be shut down their offices. As a result, the continuation of important NGO work in areas such as public health, education, human rights, culture and the environment, would be threatened. Numerous provisions of the proposed law also violate international human rights standards.

As you know, Russia will assume chairmanship of the G-8 next year. I respectfully urge you to make clear to President Vladimir Putin that adopting such a draft law is unbecoming for the chair of the G-8 and would severely damage Russia's international reputation.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR SIGNATURE HERE]

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