Interfax: Russian NGOs that won government grants won’t abandon foreign financing

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – The Russian civil rights organizations that have won in a tender for government grants are not going to abandon foreign financing.

“These are our projects. We are pursuing them regardless of financing sources. We are not carrying out projects ordered by Russian or foreign funds,” Memorial historical and civil rights society head Arseny Roginsky told Interfax on Thursday.

“These are our own projects, and in this sense there is no difference in financing for us, be it Russian money or foreign. And we won’t abandon foreign grants,” he said.

Agora association head Pavel Chikov shares this position. Agora, as well as Memorial, will receive government grants through the project’s operator, the Civil Dignity movement. “I haven’t heard that abandoning foreign grants was the condition of receiving Russian budget financing,” Chikov told Interfax on Thursday.

“Agora has had both Russian and foreign grants and incomes from commercial activities. Diversification of sources of financing is among the main factors of the organization’s stability and security. Alternative sources are very important,” he said.

The Moscow Helsinki Group, the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees, the Memorial society, the Agora association, and other organizations are among the winners of a tender for government grants, the Civil Dignity movement led by Ella Pamfilova reported on Thursday. “As many as 124 projects from 47 regions of Russia have been declared the winners of the tender,” For Civil Dignity said on its website.

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