Info on foreign funding received by Russian NGOs is overestimated – Alekseyeva

(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 8, 2013) Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the elder human rights activist in Russia and the head of the Moscow Helsinki group, believes the figures given in reports on foreign funding received by NGOs in Russia are overestimated.

“This is being done to show that these organizations allegedly have money to burn. Everyone influences public opinion in the way they see fit,” Alekseyeva told Interfax on Monday.

“I believe it’s overestimated because even if this much money was paid in such a short period of time, I would know the organizations that received this money, and I don’t know such organizations,” she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said in an interview with the German television and radio company ARD that 654 NGOs receiving money from abroad are active in Russia.

“You know how much money has gone into these organizations’ accounts since the four months from the adoption of the relevant law? You can’t imagine, and I didn’t know: it’s 28.3 billion rubles, it’s almost $1 billion. A total of 855 million rubles was received through diplomatic offices,” Putin said.