Russian non-government organizations have urged President Vladimir Putin to prove his claim that the nation's NGOs had received nearly $1 billion from foreign sponsors. Putin has made the claim to justify the sweeping raids of hundreds of Russian NGOs that has drawn a strong criticism in the West. Putin insisted that the raids are necessary to check compliance with a new law that requires the NGOs that receive foreign funding and engage in loosely defined political activities to register as "foreign agents." Putin claimed that Russian NGOs had received $1 billion from abroad, and that the public has the right to know who funded them.