U.S. Ambassador comments on Kazakhstan’s ‘foreign agents’ list

U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Daniel Rosenblum shared his thoughts on the recently published list of entities and individuals receiving foreign funding in Kazakhstan, Kazinform correspondent reports. 

“That is something our Embassy is tracking very closely and also we’ve been tracking the reactions of number of NGOs or media organizations to the publication of the list,” Ambassador Rosenblum said at the roundtable for Kazakhstani mass media on Friday.

“Some people have been making comparisons between this list and laws in other countries, the so-called ‘foreign agent’ laws. I can understand why people are making the analogy, the comparison, but I would maintain that at the moment it’s different from those other laws,” the American diplomat noted.

Daniel Rosenblum stressed that as he understands being on the list does not have a legal consequence for the organizations, specifically legal consequence and it does not impose restrictions, operational restrictions on their activities.

“Assuming that it is the case we want that situation to continue. In other words, that there are no restrictions, no legal consequences resulting from being on the list. We will continue to really closely monitor both what the Government are saying about it, what NGOs and media are saying about it. If the concerns emerge, we will raise those concerns with the Government,” he added.

Earlier it was reported that the State Revenue Committee under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan released a list of 240 persons and entities receiving foreign funding in Kazakhstan.