Neither Russian civil society nor the EU can afford to let so much potential go untapped. So far, EU policies are less than promising: Basic funding for Russian civil society has not significantly increased in recent years, amounting to just €7 million to €9 million a year, and it accepts only some 10 percent of all applications for funding it receives from Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin | Grigory Dukor/AFP via Getty Images Despite fierce Kremlin anti-Western propaganda, prominent human rights activists such as Ludmilla Alexeeva have called on the West to uphold its support and solidarity. Many Russian NGOs and new civic movements are keen to find Western partners, share know-how and connect to wider civil society networks. The EU has a vital interest to offer support. funders of Russian civil society have pulled their funding, leaving the EU as the main foreign donor. They include traditional activists, old babushkas, liberal students and even Cossacks who normally defend the Kremlin line. Environmental activist groups also unite segments of society that are usually invisible, or actively opposed to one another. In 2017, protests by angry Moscow citizens against Mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s new housing scheme drew a diverse mix of local residents from all demographic and social classes. Local residents blocked roads, picketed plants, signed online petitions and openly called for the resignation of local officials.ĭistinctions between various social groups are becoming more blurred.
The wave of “garbage uprisings” against toxic landfills outside Moscow is just the most recent example. Of a total of 1,100 protests staged between January and September 2017, about three-fourths concerned local socio-economic issues such as unpaid wages, layoffs, closures of industrial plants and pollution. A 2017 study by the Centre for Economic and Political Reform shows a significant increase in protests throughout the country - even if outright political rallies remained rare. Freedom of assembly is severely limited, while censorship has risen steeply, not just on the internet, but also in arts and education.ĭespite this crackdown, Russian civil society has shown an impressive ability to adapt.
Today, the Kremlin defames NGOs as traitors and “foreign agents,” and represses independent thought in society more widely.
To be sure, Putin’s authoritarianism has shrunk the space for civic activism, which faces levels of restriction last seen in the 1990s.
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