Russia refuses American volunteers

scandal The American Peace Corps is forced to significantly reduce the scope of its activities in Russia - Russian authorities have not extended the visas of half of the workers of this voluntary public organization. According to the authorities in many areas where American volunteers worked, they lacked qualifications, and some were simply spies or crazy.
Peace Corps spokeswoman Ellen Field expressed concern that 30 of the 64 volunteers were denied visa extensions for a second term. It was planned that a group of 62 people would arrive in Russia in September to continue their activities. Now, due to visa problems, they will have to go to other countries.
The American Peace Corps was formed in 1961 by order of President Kennedy (John F. Kennedy). Over four decades, more than 165 thousand Americans have been members of the organization, working in the field of education and health care in 135 countries. Currently, 7 thousand volunteers work in 70 countries.
According to Peace Corps Russia director Jeff Hay, 700 volunteers have worked in Russia since 1992, mostly teaching English and business skills. Mr Hay indicated that his organization receives 150 requests each year from various parts of the country asking for volunteers.
However, if you believe Russian sources, everything does not look quite like that. Many Russians have the impression that the American Peace Corps is a bunch of spies and schizophrenics. Thus, the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region recently sent a letter to the Ministry of Education complaining that “volunteers do not know Russian and often have a low level of education.” And this despite the fact that, under the terms of the contract, Peace Corps volunteers have the right to work in the host country only after an exam on knowledge of the local language. As for the low educational level, according to the Peace Corps representatives themselves, about 90% of volunteers do not have either teaching experience or relevant qualifications. For example, in Voronezh, one of the English teachers who worked at a local pedagogical school turned out to be a guitarist, who was recalled a year later due to worsening mental illness, and another was a former trade worker, moreover, more interested in hunting for UFOs than in studying with students. And in the Khabarovsk Territory, the basics of commercial activity were taught by Americans without higher education, among whom there were porters and waiters, but there were not a single graduates of Harvard Business School.
True, there are still specialists among the volunteers. Thus, in Samara, volunteer F. Brown, a former CIA employee who was involved in the recruitment of Soviet military personnel in Berlin in the 70s, intensively established connections with representatives of the local administration and heads of large defense enterprises. And in the Khabarovsk Territory, another overly inquisitive volunteer was detained at a specially guarded security facility.

NIKITA Kommersant-PROKUNIN

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 142 dated 08/13/2002, p. 4

The Peace Corps was built with flaws