Is there life after the money of the State Department

Russian human rights organizations have lost the source of financing from the American USAID International Development Agency, which ceases its work in Russia at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs .

The US State Agency helps the US State Department to pursue American foreign policy, finances projects in more than 100 countries. As a rule, these projects are aimed at developing a market economy, democracy, civil society and social infrastructure. In Russia, human rights organizations received help from USAID for more than 20 years. Representatives of the Russian non -profit funds told Publicpost how to do without the help of the American authorities now.

Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Council of Human Rights Society “Memorial”

Of course, we are upset because people who work need money, if only in order to live, feed children, rent an office, lawyers need databases of these documents. I am upset because specific people are being addressed who will have to refuse help. But the closing of USAID will not stop our work. Our work will now be complicated, but we will live and work further. USAID financed a noticeable part of our project in the North Caucasus. The statement of our wonderful Foreign Ministry says that interference in the political processes of Russia, including the regions of the North Caucasus, is in doubt. This work - legal assistance and collecting information about violation of human rights, the publication of reports - will now be difficult, but will not stop. We thought that we help the state to fight terrorism with their activities, but it turns out ...

But we have other sponsors, almost all are foreign. No project of the human rights center is funded from domestic sources. Now we plan to apply for a grant. We already have one project. This will happen regardless of the closure of USAID, at the beginning of the year we still planned to ask for help from the state.

The USAID departure is not directly related to the Law on NGOs, but there is a tendency to question the activities of organizations that receive funding from abroad. There is a paranoid idea in this - who feeds the girl, he dances her. If our authorities say so, then they really have such a performance. But we are actually independent. I would try to give us at least one of our sponsors! We and I are partners. If they do not agree to our conditions, then they simply will not finance us. I never tried to dictate anything to us.

The fact that USAID could close, no one warned us, there was no such conversation. ”

The Voice Association received grants from USAID, and now, due to the “overlap of the source”, monitoring of the upcoming elections in Russia can be torn. “I think this is due to the independent election monitoring. This is a very strong blow to the“ voice. ”We certainly did not expect him,” Lilia Shibanova, head of Voice, told Interfax. According to her, the “Voice” has already launched a “map of election violations” before a single voting day on October 14, but “all this is now at risk of closing”. The deputy director of the Voting Grigory Melkonants told Publicpost that USAID does not fall under the Law on NPOs, because it is not a non -profit organization because it is financed by the federal government of the United States. However, Melkonian is sure that these things are interconnected. "The Russian authorities, apparently, decided that the Law of the NCC is not enough and it was still worth blocking major financial support. Some paranoia, in my opinion," he said. The chairman of the Moscow Helsinki group Lyudmila Alekseev agrees with the Melkonian. “This was done under the pressure of the Russian authorities, under the pressure of circumstances that are created with the entry into force of amendments to the Law on NGOs . After the entry into force of this law, foreign funds are almost impossible to work. This is a ban on their work. So this is a quite sound USAID solution,” said Alekseeva Publicpost .

It is believed that the situation around the completion of the USAID is artificially inflated. In August of this year, information appeared that USAID will stop activities in Russia until 2014. Since the agency helped Russian funds for a long time, some simply forgot about its existence and believed that USAID disappeared back in the 90s. As a result, the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs against the backdrop of discussions of the Law on NPOs and the unstable political situation in Russia turned into a loud informational occasion. Typically, such decisions are made after negotiations, but the US State Department quickly agreed to close the USAID. There is an important reason for this - now in the USA there is a pre -election campaign and the whole country is monitoring the confrontation of presidential candidates Mita Romnie and Barack Obama . It is simply unprofitable to the American authorities to enter into negotiations with Russia, which can lead to a scandal.

Russian NPOs, who have lost financing from an American source, have a chance not to be left without money. Perhaps now the State Department will look for some other methods of material support, but will not do this directly. In addition, there are European organizations that can also become financial donors. The difficult situation is only with Russian sponsors who are afraid to transfer money to non-profit funds due to the fact that the systems are opaque and corrupt.

Denis Rosa, Director of the Perspective Disabled Assistance Fund

We will now look for funding. USAID is about one third of our financing. This is a question about the development of inclusive education, about the employment of people with disabilities. Regional work will suffer in order to get out, we will first think about Moscow programs, and then it is our regional partners. I hope that we will find funding, but this is impossible to do in a month. Those innovative programs that we implement in Moscow, for example, the development of inclusive employment - there is almost no such successful experience almost anywhere. This is a lot of work and we were able to do it thanks to USAID. The inclusive education program will have to be reduced. We hope that there will be more corporate sponsorship and support from Russia.

Valentina Melnikova, Head of the Union of Committee of Soldiers' Mothers

USAID helped us, but it was a long time ago, now the committee has no money at all, we even owed for rent. They somehow quickly lost interest in us, although there were various projects. After the adoption of the Law on NPOs, a very difficult situation has developed: both the funds themselves leave and sponsors. Such sponsors of replacement, in general, is not. But we have nowhere to go - we will have to work. The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers is an organization where people come, including from other cities. They need to help. We are forced to work and are not going to close.

Now no one is sponsoring us. Entrepreneurs from Russia are afraid to help us. Even during the Second Chechen War, these medium -sized businessmen told us directly that they were ready to help, but only to a particular person. They said that they could only help those organizations that they will be indicated from above, otherwise they will be simply produced. As a result, they bought controversial beds for the wounded, for example. And thanks to them for that. But to do something more to be afraid in Russia.

There are projects of the European Commission, but there is such a complex and opaque system, scandals constantly arise there with receiving money. Now we want to go following the example of Olga Romanova - to throw a cry so that everyone we helped, we threw off the Yandex -wallet at least a hundred rubles. And we managed to help millions of people over the 20 years of the committee’s existence. Maybe something will work out.