RUSSIAN authorities have searched the Moscow offices of New-York based Human Rights Watch as they step up raids against pro-democracy groups despite growing concern from top European states.
Germany said the inspections risked affecting the two allies' relations while France sought an explanation from the Russian embassy about a check into the activities of its Alliance Francaise cultural outreach organisation.
HRW's Europe and Central Asia department head Rachel Denber said three representatives from the prosecutor's office and a tax official had undertaken what they called "an unplanned inspection" of the Moscow office.
She said the Moscow headquarters of the Civic Assistance refugees centre and of the Transparency International corruption watchdog had been raided in a similar manner.
"This is part of a massive, unprecedented wave of inspections of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in Russia that is intensifying pressure on civil society in the wake of the adoption of a number restrictive laws last year," Denber said by email.
"The scale of these inspections serves to reinforce the menacing atmosphere for civil society created by the adoption of last year's laws."
The raids followed President Vladimir Putin's signature of a law that labelled Russian political organisations with Western funding as "foreign agents" that required more rigorous checks.
The raids have already raised eyebrows in Europe and threatened to further complicate ex-KGB agent Putin's uneasy relations with the West.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday called the inspections and searches "worrisome since they seem to be aimed at further undermining civil society activities in the country."
Germany also expressed its "concern" to the number two envoy of the Russian embassy in Berlin over an inspection of the offices of Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) - a political think tank with ties to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.
A spokesman for Merkel warned on Wednesday that "any action that interferes with or criminalises (the NGO's) main activities will degrade the relationship" between Russia and Germany.
Activists estimate that at least 100 organisations have been inspected already in Moscow and Saint Petersburg as well as other parts of Russia.
They complain that the checks effectively paralyse their activities because staff are forced to dig through old documents and compile huge stacks of material for the myriad of Russian agencies with which they have to register.
One rights group posted a photograph on Twitter on Tuesday showing a pile of documents requested by the authorities that came out to more than a metre in height.
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