MOSCOW, July 20 - RAPSI. Russian Justice Initiative, the largest foreign non-profit organization in Russia specializing in filing complaints with the European Court of Human Rights has appealed the ban on its activities in the country, Kommersant daily reports on Friday.

According to the newspaper, Russian Justice Initiative, which has won 109 proceedings and had had 200 complaints accepted, has been removed from the state registry by the Justice Ministry and this decision was upheld by Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court.

On July 13, the State Duma adopted in the third reading a law whereby non-profit entities financed from abroad and engaged in politics are branded foreign agents. Its leaders may be fined or placed behind bars for up to three years for refusing to provide information regarding their sources of financing. Russian Justice Initiative no longer intends to register as a Russian non-profit organization, which would make it a foreign agent, but wishes to be restored in its usual capacity of a foreign non-profit entity.

The new law only applies to Russian organizations, while branches of foreign human rights institutions remain unregulated.