MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) - Planeta Nadezhd, Russia's environmental activist group, has been fined 300,000 rubles (about $6,000) for failure to register with the Justice Ministry as 'foreign agent', the group's lawyer Andrei Lepekhin told RAPSI on Tuesday.

Additionally, a magistrate court imposed another 10,000 ruble ($200) fine on the NGO for not filing its documents with the Ministry of Justice on time. 

“We believe the ruling is groundless because there was no legitimate reason to include this NGO in the registry of foreign agents. We will appeal the ruling at the Ozyorsk City Court,” the lawyer said.

The Ministry of Justice included Planeta Nadezhd in the registry of foreign agent NGOs, on April 15.

In late April, a magistrate court in the northern port city of Murmansk imposed a 50,000-rubles ($1,000) fine on the local environmental company Bellona Murmansk for failing to label itself a 'foreign agent'.

Since November 2012, political NGOs funded from abroad have been compelled by law to register as foreign agents. In June 2013, the Justice Ministry was granted authority to classify NGOs as foreign agents at its own discretion and included a number of organizations in its register.