Russia raids Human Rights Watch office amid EU concern Putin blamed the US State Department for funding the protests that rose against his return to the presidency last winter and moved quickly against the NGOs once confirmed to power in May. Russian officials have not linked the raids to the foreign agent law directly and the action appears part of an in-depth examination of activities of non-governmental organisations that bother the state. The authorities began their action last week by moving in against Memorial - one of the country's most respected rights organisations whose vast catalogue of Stalin-era repressions is accessed by scholars around the world. The Moscow office of London-based Amnesty International was searched on Monday. Groups such as Memorial have refused to change their registration to that of a "foreign agent" because they argued the legislation equated them with spies. 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 Baroness 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. 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 (three feet) in height. Wednesday's inspections included a written request for more information from Agora - a legal defence group based in the central Russian city of Kazan - and a demand for the veteran rights advocate Lev Ponomaryov to appear for questioning. Agora said the documents sought by the authorities included all the available information on its foreign funding for the past two years.