The Moscow Helsinki Group has collected 2.5 million rubles in donations and will be able to continue its work in 2013. Our Russian citizens donated money to help the oldest human rights organization.

The Moscow Helsinki Group has collected 2.5 million rubles in donations and will be able to continue its work in 2013. Our Russian citizens donated money to help the oldest human rights organization

The MHG issued a call for help on 25 November. On the same day, the news was trumpeted by all the federal media. Even NTV.

• Already in the first few days we collected 200 thousand rubles, - says Lyudmila Alekseeva. “People from all over the country donated as much as they could. For a penny. It was a pleasure! Then there was a breakthrough...

“Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has donated 1 million rubles to human rights activist Alekseeva,” the editorials of the print media read on December 6. The motives for which the owner of the ONEXIM group decided to provide sponsorship to the MHG are unknown. The press service of the Civic Platform party (which is headed by Prokhorov), Novaya Gazeta, said that this was a personal decision of Mikhail Dmitrievich and the press service could not comment on it. The representative of the "GP" Stanislav Kucher added that Prokhorov himself does not comment on his personal decisions.

Subsequently, it became known that the Civic Platform plans to cooperate with human rights activists to support those convicted on economic charges.

Fundraising continued. A charity performance in support of the Moscow Helsinki Group was staged on December 2 at the KnAM Theater (Komsomolsk-on-Amur). On December 10, Yury Shevchuk put an end to fundraising for the MHG. The performance of the musician became a postscript at the award ceremony of the Moscow Helsinki Group in the field of human rights protection. The DDT leader described his performance as a charity concert, and he donated all the money that was collected during this concert to human rights activists.

• We counted everything that we have accumulated, - says Lyudmila Aleksseva. - And it turned out 2.5 million rubles. This money will be enough for us to function for a whole year!

At the moment, the collection of funds by the Moscow Helsinki Group continues - all additional funds that the MHG manages to raise will be used to provide legal assistance to people and develop human rights programs.

• Thanks everyone! - says Lyudmila Alekseeva. - We did not expect this.

We put down the handsets with her, but now we don’t say goodbye ...

Postscript about 500 rubles

Recently, a woman came to the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta and asked: “How can I contact the Moscow Helsinki Group?” At first I answered that the MHG had problems and it was not known whether they could help her. The story is standard: they imprisoned her son, she thinks that it is unjust, she is ready to provide evidence. Hearing my remark about the Helsinki group, the woman adjusted her glasses and said, “All I want to do is donate money to them. For the son, if they can, then let them take it. I believe in them."

“True, I have 500 rubles,” she added later, embarrassed. I gave her the address and phone number of MHG.

Prokhorov donated one million, Mitrokhin donated 100,000 rubles, the rest of the 1.4 million rubles were collected by the whole world: in thousands, hundreds and tens. We need MHG.