Russia declares charitable Zimin Foundation ‘undesirable organisation’

Russia has designated the charitable Zimin Foundation an “undesirable organisation”, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday, alleging that it provided financial support to people “involved in extremist activities and terrorism”.

Established in 2015 after the Russian authorities labelled its predecessor, the Dynasty Foundation, a “foreign agent”, the Zimin Foundation has supported various independent educational, journalistic and scientific projects over the years. It was founded by the late Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Zimin and his son, Boris, who took over as the foundation’s director following his father’s death in 2021.

The Prosecutor General’s Office accused the Zimin Foundation of financially supporting those who are “hostile to Russia” after it allocated 30 subsidies in February 2025 to various exiled media outlets and research projects that had lost US funding after the Trump administration froze all foreign aid payments in January.

The Zimin Foundation notably also co-founded Redkollegia, an independent media award designed to support independent journalism that awards a monetary prize to several reporters each month. The foundation announced on Tuesday that Redkollegia and the Enlightener Prize, awarded for the best non-fiction books written in Russian, would continue its work without the Zimin Foundation’s support.

Boris Zimin, who has lived abroad for over 20 years, is well known for his financial support of independent media and educational projects, funding Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s emergency evacuation to Germany in 2020 after his attempted poisoning in Siberia. Until last year he was also a major donor to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, but in June 2024 he announced that he would discontinue his funding citing his growing frustration with the organisation since Navalny’s death.

Zimin was designated a “foreign agent” in 2022 and was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison for fraud in April.