The latest prong in the Kremlin’s attack on civil society is the introduction of a new bill which would class NGOs as ‘foreign agents’, essentially implying that these institutions which are, for the most part, attempting to improve the lives of citizens in Russia, might be run by spies (!)  Rachel Denber, the Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch has decried the proposal and offers a detailed account of how it will stymy the work of these valuable organizations: