Where does “Federation” begin?

The Federation Foundation, which organized a charity evening in St. Petersburg last December in favor of sick children, is accused of the fact that the funds that the foundation promised to raise did not reach the hospitals. The mother of a girl suffering from cancer, Olga Kuznetsova, wrote an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev with accusations against the foundation.

The evening, at which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sang the song “Blueberry Hill” and played the theme of his and failed spies’ favorite piece “Where the Motherland Begins” with one finger on the piano, was the latest event in a series of events held by the foundation for the benefit of patients in children’s oncology departments in hospitals in St. Petersburg. The children were visited by Sharon Stone, Mickey Rourke, Monica Bellucci.

Olga Kuznetsova claims that in the almost three months that have passed since the concert on December 10, no financial assistance was provided to the patients.

The Federation Foundation, recalls Kommersant, is headed by Vladimir Kiselev, producer of the Zemlyane group (the only Russian musicians present at the concert), who previously held the position of general director of the federal state unitary enterprise Kremlin, which operates on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin and other facilities under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Administration, it carried out cultural and entertainment events. The newspaper adds to this that the Kremlin was disbanded two years ago and that Kiselev is responsible for changing the date and location of Madonna’s concert due to poor organization and canceling Eric Clapton’s performance.

It is curious that on November 30, less than two weeks before the concert with the participation of stars and Putin, Kiselyov stated at a press conference that “it is today that our lawyers are completing the official registration.” However, there is no such fund among the registered non-profit organizations on the website of the Ministry of Justice, and the Federation has not even acquired its own website or bank account. Representatives of other charitable organizations that actively help sick children claim that they first heard about the Federation shortly before the concert.

It is unknown how much money was spent on the concert. Representatives of the fund claim that the stars came for free. The foundation's spokeswoman, Larisa Serebryannikova, told Novaya Gazeta that the foundation actually did not intend to raise money for the needs of sick children through this concert, but the goal was only to draw attention to the activities of the foundation. True, the collection of money was written on the posters, but the foundation claims that these “cliched phrases” were written without any meaning. All this, as Kommersant notes, is at odds with the words of the foundation’s PR manager Kristina Snickers at the same press conference on November 30: then she stated that all funds raised during the event would be donated to hospitals and sick children. And Kiselev, recalls Novaya Gazeta, then said the following: “5-6 medical centers have been identified where we were. The funds collected will be given to these centers before the event, so as not to give anyone a reason to write that we collected money, which we then took for our own organization.” He also talked about some envelopes with a childhood dream, which he hopes will be on the tables during the concert so that the guests of honor will help make these dreams come true. There were no envelopes on the tables; in addition, none of the children, parents or hospital doctors were invited to the concert.

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov now also says that “no one promised to help specific children, it was necessary to draw attention to three specific hospitals,” but he scolds the fund for the fact that the money is flowing slowly.

At the same time, the “Federation” harmed other charitable foundations, which, unlike it, are accountable for the money spent. According to the head of the Russian Relief Fund charity program, Lev Ambinder, quoted by Kommersant, they are already receiving “letters with curses, one of which says: “All your funds are the same profanation as the Federation.”