Russia

Agency for Social Information (ASI)

$67,000
To build regional NGO coalitions, and to strengthen ties between regional and issue-based associations, coalitions, and networks of civil society organizations across Russia. ASI will continue to gather information about active networks of Russian NGOs and disseminate it through its website (www.asi.org.ru). In addition, the organization will organize an NGO networking conference in Moscow and award five subgrants to support local NGO coalitions.

Agency for Social Information (ASI)

$65,002
To collect and disseminate information on the activities of the Russian NGO community. ASI will maintain its network of affiliate offices located in 26 regional centers, which will provide daily and weekly news reports that will be aggregated by the Moscow office, posted on the ASI website, and distributed via an email listserv. The ASI website serves as a primary vehicle for information exchange for the Russian NGO community.

American Center for International Labor Solidarity

$455,000
To promote freedom of association through sectoral and regional organizing, strengthen the rule of law by providing legal advocacy and Russian union representation for migrant workers, and challenge discrimination and xenophobia in the workplace and community. The program will focus on the auto, retail, and services sectors in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, Samara and Rostov Oblast, and Moscow. The migrant workers activities will be conducted through the Urals Trade Union Center in Yekaterinburg.

Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center

$60,000
To resist historical revisionism by organizing a series of regional contests for Russian history teachers, which will provide them with an opportunity to create original lesson plans on topics such as Stalinism, political repression, the gulag system, human rights and the dissident movement. Winning lessons plans will be entered into a national contest, with the best entries compiled for use by other teachers.

Astrakhan Regional Social Organization "Committee of Soldiers' Mothers"

$25,000*
To launch a resource center for NGOs in Astrakhan oblast in Southern Russia, in order to raise the level of professionalism of the oblast’s civil society organizations, and to train young activists and leaders. Astrakhan Soldiers Mothers will also hold a number of roundtables, seminars and a conference to encourage dialogue between civil society and local government.

Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization "Memorial Center for the History of Political Repression 'Perm-36'"

$49,000
To organize a traveling exhibit on human rights in Russia and the history of totalitarianism and political repression in the Soviet Union. The exhibit will draw on materials form the museum’s own collection, materials from Memorial, and the archives of the Moscow Helsinki Group. It will be shown in museums in small towns throughout Perm krai, and in other parts of the country.

Baltic International Development Agency (BIDA)

$26,680
To continue a program to strengthen nongovernmental organizations in Kaliningrad region. BIDA will continue to provide technical assistance through its NGO Information and Consulting Center, which was established in 2002 with NED support, and organize training workshops for a total of 140 NGO activists.

Caucasus Institute Foundation

$49,000
To conduct a journalism training program targeting young journalists from Russia’s North Caucasus. The program will include courses in investigative journalism, media standards and ethics, media law, English language, and regional economics. The role of democracy and civil society in journalism will be emphasized across the curriculum. The students will hold internships, contribute to a weekly online publication, and produce their own newspaper.

Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)

$176,205
By advocating on behalf of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business associations and chambers of commerce give SMEs a voice in policy making, enabling a democratic, inclusive reform process. To help these organizations better to fulfill their representative role, CIPE will expand the International Institute for the Management of Business Associations (IIMBA), formed with the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2007. During a successful Phase I, the IIMBA emerged as Russia’s only education and certification program for associations and chambers.

Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)

$128,736
To raise the level of public discourse and government policy-making regarding business sector reforms and to encourage open transparent policy debates and to enable a more democratic reform process. CIPE and its local partner, the Center for Economic and Financial Research, will run seminars and roundtable discussions for government officials, the media, entrepreneurs, NGOs, and academics to facilitate the free flow of information on political and economic issues.

Center for Public Information

$13,500 *
To improve the Center’s outreach to the international and domestic media, Russian and foreign NGOs, government agencies and average citizens, and to develop into a more useful and effective information resource for the NGO community. The Center will design and launch its website, which will include NGO press releases, an archive of the Chronicle of the Moscow Helsinki Group and practical advice for NGOs.

Center for Social and Labor Rights

$40,000
To maintain, expand and promote its interactive Internet portal, www.trudprava.ru, which fosters knowledge of labor rights and issues, and provides workers with the necessary skills to defend these rights. Launched last year, this website serves as an independent and objective source of information to help workers make informed decisions and improve their working conditions.

Center for the Support of Nonprofit Groups

$26,722
To carry out a series of daylong seminars for leaders and members of Yaroslavl NGOs on basics of nonprofit management. The seminars will be supplemented by lectures on specific topics, a roundtable, and a two-day conference. Center staff will also offer consultation on public relations, fundraising and organizational development to NGOs at their office in Yaroslavl.

Centre de la Protection Internationale

$50,000*
To provide advanced training on international judicial procedures to human rights lawyers from Russia and other CIS countries. The Centre serves as the Strasbourg office of the Moscow-based International Protection Center, an Endowment grantee with extensive experience assisting citizens whose rights have been violated by appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.

Charitable Foundation "Support of Civil Society Initiatives 'Fulcrum Foundation'"

$55,000*
To develop a sense of citizenship and personal responsibility among Russian youth and support the development of civil society at the local level. Fulcrum Foundation will award approximately seven small grants of about $5,000 in support of projects conducted by youth organizations working in Russia’s regions. The Fulcrum Foundation will monitor and support the activities of the organizations that receive grants.

Chechen Committee for National Salvation

$75,000*
To offer legal aid and support to refugees of the conflict in Chechnya. Committee staff will attempt to intervene in cases of conflicts between local residents and refugees, and will help refugees resist pressure from local authorities to return home. The Committee will also gather information about and attempt to offer assistance in instances of arrests and disappearances.

Chelyabinsk Regional Public Fund "Helping Hand"

$57,000 *
To support a program of legal assistance and human rights education and training in several cities in the southern Urals. Helping Hand’s “Human Rights Ambulance” will offer free legal aid, including working with inmates in the region’s prison system and their families. The “Human Rights School” will provide courses on human rights, democracy, and civic activism.

Committee against Torture

$85,000*
To reduce the incidence of torture in Chechnya. The Committee will monitor and publicize cases of torture at the hands of law enforcement officials, and will offer legal aid to the victims. It will assist victims in filing criminal charges in the Russian legal system and, if necessary, in applying to have their case heard by the European Court of Human Rights.

Dagestan Regional Social Organization "Informational - Analytical Center 'Rakurs'"

$50,000
To publish its biweekly newspaper, Dagestanskii Rakurs (Dagestan Perspective), the only independent human rights publication in Dagestan. Dagestanskii Rakurs covers such topics as human rights violations, NGOs and their activities, conditions in the regional prison system, interethnic and interconfessional relations, problems faced by refugees and forced migrants, ecological issues, and efforts to promote cooperation between government and the third sector.

Ekaterinburg Memorial

$50,000 *
To support the ongoing operations of Ekaterinburg Memorial, including: maintaining exhibits on human rights; operating a library on the history of political repression and a public reading room for the democratic press; providing a video center, and an Internet classroom, for students and teachers studying human rights; operating a public legal aid office; and providing management and financial training to NGO leaders.

Eko-Logika

$23,000 *
To help citizens in Southern Russia’s Rostov oblast to engage the local bureaucracy to demand transparency and accountability. Eko-Logika will organize training seminars to teach participants how to request information from local government sources and will continue to operate its resource center, which provides the necessary office equipment and consultative support needed to submit such requests.

Environmental Human Rights Center “Bellona”

$47,000
To increase access to objective information about Russian human rights and environmental issues, and to encourage networking among NGOs working in these fields. Bellona will maintain its website, www.bellona.ru, a valuable source of independent information for the NGO community, media and general public. Bellona will also publish four print and electronic editions of its journal, Ekologia i Pravo (Ecology and the Law).

Foundation "Independent Press Center"

$67,000
To organize discussions and press conferences on important issues in Russian social and political life. The Center will monitor press coverage of corruption, illegal actions by officials, human rights violations, and critical reports on various issues in Russia. The Center will coordinate closely with Memorial, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Human Rights Watch and numerous other civil society organizations. The Center will also assist regional journalists who have run afoul of local officials.

Information Agency 'MAXIMUM'

$41,399
To cover breaking events in Chechnya, Ingushetia and areas inhabited by ethnic Ingush in North Ossetia. The Maximum Information Agency will assemble a team of correspondents to gather information from eyewitnesses, government officials, and documentary sources, write stories for editing by the program director, and send these stories out via an e-mail list.

Information Agency 'Memo.ru'

$85,000*
To operate its Caucasus Switchboard website (www.kavkaz.memo.ru), which provides objective news and analysis of events in the Caucasus, as well as information on the activities of civil society groups. This year, Memo.ru plans to continue to improve the quality of the independent website’s journalism, and expand outreach to an international audience with more frequent updates of the site’s English-language version.

Information Agency 'Memo.ru'

$50,000
To operate its Caucasus Switchboard website (www.kavkaz.memo.ru), which provides news and analysis of events in the Caucasus, as well as information on the activities of civil society groups. Memo.ru plans to continue to improve the quality of the website’s journalism, and expand outreach to an international audience with more frequent updates of the English-language version of the website.

Institute for Information Freedom Development

$60,000 *
To ensure citizens’ rights to find, view, and distribute government information in accordance with the Russian constitution, and encourage the development of effective legislation regulating access to government information, in accordance with international standards. The Institute will monitor changes in legislation, develop proposals to improve laws, and review publicly-available government electronic information resources.

International Protection Center

$60,000*
To offer free legal representation and consultations to the victims of human rights violations in Russia. For those individuals who have exhausted all available remedies under the Russian court system, the Center will help them to pursue their cases through the European Court of Human Rights or the United Nations’ Committee on Human Rights.

Karachaevo-Cherkessk Center for Social Development ‘Civic Strategy’

$25,000*
To strengthen civil society in the Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia in the North Caucasus by providing technical support and consultation to local NGOs, as well as building a network of NGOs. Civic Strategy will gather information about local organizations, assess their needs, and establish an NGO resource center.

International Republican Institute (IRI)

$600,000*
To expand its National Youth Leadership Academy (NYLA), a growing network of youth-focused NGOs, party organizations and activists, to include new regions and target new audiences of young leaders who are already inclined toward activism, but lack the knowledge, skills and peer-network support to do so. IRI will also increase networking opportunities for both new and existing NYLA chapters to help create a cohesive interregional – and eventually, national – network of young leaders.

International Republican Institute (IRI)

$400,000*
To address a current lack of timely, reliable, and independent public opinion data in the Russian political sector as well as broader international development circles. IRI will conduct public opinion polling combining monthly flash focus groups and values-centered surveys to provide data for Russian political parties. IRI will share results of both the flash focus groups and the values-centered survey with party leaders from across the political spectrum through briefings tailored to their party’s needs and goals.

Interregional Association of Human Rights Organizations "AGORA"

$50,000
To provide legal and informational assistance to activists and organizations that come under pressure from the authorities as a result of their work. In response to a continued pattern of government pressure on NGOs, AGORA will leverage its experience providing human rights groups with legal and informational support to continue its assistance to persecuted activists and organizations.

Interregional Public Organization "Center for the Development of Social Partnership"

$50,000
To continue its program of increasing citizen participation in local government in Yaroslavl oblast. Among other activities, the Center will operate its School of Local Government; monitor the October 2008 municipal elections in the oblast; and publish its newspaper. In addition, the Center will push for greater official cooperation between NGOs and local government by pushing for the creation a Civic Chamber for Yaroslavl oblast.

Kabardin-Balkar Republic Public Human Rights Center

$40,000
To continue its wide-ranging program of human rights activism in the predominantly Muslim republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus. The Center will render free legal aid; monitor the activity of the courts and encourage judicial, legal and other reforms that promote human rights and democracy; research Stalin-era crimes in Kabardino-Balkaria; and hold a series of roundtables and conferences to deepen local understanding of these issues.

Kolskaya Association of Women Lawyers

$25,000 *
To defend victims of torture and degrading treatment, and educate activists and officials to prevent and defend against such conduct. The Association will establish a crisis center for victims of torture and degrading treatment, submit legal appeals on their behalf, train human rights activists to represent torture victims, and conduct seminars on human rights for government representatives in Murmansk oblast.

Krasnodar Regional Public Organization “Yuzhnaya Volna”

$34,000 *
To foster direct communication between local authorities and their constituents on socially and politically important issues, and stimulate public participation in political affairs in Southern Russia’s Krasnodar region. Yuzhnaya Volna (Southern Wave) will conduct public roundtables on topics such as interethnic conflict, the role of an independent media, and socially responsible business practices.

Mashr

$54,000 *
To counter the lack of official accountability and lack of respect for human rights in Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus. Mashr will publicize incidents of kidnapping and forced disappearance, provide legal assistance to victims and their family members, encourage officials to investigate such events thoroughly, and use international judicial mechanisms to resolve such cases when necessary.

Mothers of Chechnya

$52,000
To offer legal aid and advice to the families of citizens that were kidnapped or disappeared during and after the two wars in Chechnya. The Association will help relatives continue searching for their missing relatives and will help them press criminal charges or file civil suits in court. It will also continue to maintain and expand its database on cases of disappearance in Chechnya.

Murmansk Association of Women Journalists

$38,000 *
To enhance the role of citizens and journalists in setting local government priorities, and increase the transparency of local government processes. The Association will organize a session of its school for journalists from local and regional newspapers in Murmansk oblast and the Republic of Karelia, providing instruction on how to use blogs as a communication channel to support civic initiatives and increase government transparency.

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)

$1,000,000*
To address weak party development and citizen disengagement from politics in Russia through an 18-month project surrounding municipal elections. NDI’s program will include research on voters’ policy interests; meetings among parties, CSOs and elected officials to discuss community issues; training and guided practice for parties, candidates, and CSOs on election organizing and citizen outreach; and consultations and guided practice on constituent relations with newly elected councilors. Youth groups would be specifically targeted for participation in these activities.

Nonviolence International

$50,000*
To encourage young people in the North Caucasus to become more engaged in resolving local issues, such as ethnic tensions or relations with law enforcement. Young people from the Caucasus will participate in seminars and roundtables on tolerance and civic activism, and will submit proposals for specific, practical initiatives that can be implemented during the project. Three such initiatives will be supported.

Ozersk City Socio-Ecological Public Organization "Planet of Hopes"

$44,158
To stem widespread abuses of human rights in Russia’s closed cities, or ZATOs. The project will involve research, lobbying, teacher training, and public information campaigns in Ozersk and nearby cities. Planet of Hopes will organize mobile legal reception centers in other small towns and villages in the Ozersk area, prepare and submit cases to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and publish its own small-circulation newspaper.

Perm City Public Organization "Center for Civic Education and Human Rights"

$50,000
To introduce human rights and civic education classes into schools and universities in the Perm region and Russia as a whole. The program will involve training teachers and university professors, developing human rights and civic education curricula, and publishing teaching materials. The Center will update its database of social studies teachers in Perm region, and will expand its alumni network to communicate better with graduates of the program.

Pskov Council of Soldiers' Mothers

$20,000 *
To enable Russian soldiers, draftees and young people of draft age, as well as their families, to protect their legal and human rights. Pskov Soldiers’ Mothers will conduct human rights training seminars and provide legal consultations for approximately 1,000 individuals and families in Northwest Russia’s Pskov oblast.

Regional Public Organization for Assistance in Securing Public Information "Center for Public Information"

$68,000
To conduct its Human Rights School, as well as other workshops, for thousands of draft-age youth and conscripts. It will also continue to maintain a database on draftees and servicemen in order to track cases of human rights abuse at military bases across Russia. Finally, Soldier’s Mothers will create an interactive web portal to provide legal information and advice to draftees, servicemen and their families.

Regional Public Organization "Independent Council of Legal Expertise"

$65,000
To monitor legislative developments in the State Duma and regional legislatures, with a particular focus on regions with a poor human rights record. The Council will prepare commentary on particularly significant pieces of draft legislation and the extent to which they correspond with constitutional and international norms. The Council will also analyze draft laws at the request of national and regional human rights organizations.

Regional Public Organization "St. Petersburg League of Women Voters"

$45,000
To hold a series of seminars and round tables on Russian politics for young civic activists from six regions: Arkhangelsk, Vyborg, Kaliningrad, Pskov, Tver and St. Petersburg. The League will also hold legal consultations for young people at its headquarters in St. Petersburg, and will continue to publish its newspaper, The League of Women Voters.

Rostov Center for Civic and Legal Education

$35,000 *
To help mitigate ethnic, religious and national tensions among young people in Southern Russia, particularly in the North Caucasus. The Rostov Center will organize a training seminar for teachers, hold a summer camp and a youth festival with a human rights theme, publish a book on human rights for youth, and run a student oratory contest on human rights.

Rostov Regional Public Organization "Civic Human Rights Defense League"

$30,000
To encourage transparency and accountability in the municipal budgeting processes. The project will involve three components: an education component, to train local activists to examine budgets; an analytical component, in which local activists will hold public hearings to discuss the city’s budget; and an information component, to present the results of the project to the media and public.

Russian-Chechen Friendship Society

$25,000
To carry out research into the possibility of a war crimes tribunal on Chechnya, in accordance with a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe calling for the establishment of such a tribunal. This grant will serve as interim funding while the Society establishes procedures for working with its official headquarters in Finland.

Russian Union of Journalists

$50,000
To monitor and research instances of violence or pressure against journalists. The Center’s staff will conduct investigations into murders, kidnappings, and other extreme forms of violence against journalists in order to determine if they are connected to these journalists’ professional activities. Regular monitoring and research will be carried out by the Center’s network of correspondents.

The Stavropol Krai Center for Civic Initiatives “Alter Vita”

$27,000 *
To increase the level and quality of civic activism in eleven towns of Stavropol krai in Southern Russia. Alter Vita will provide training to local activists, NGO leaders and young people; find ways to improve communication between NGOs and local government officials; and stimulate discussion of important social issues.

Swedish Helsinki Committee

$65,000
To increase international awareness of war crimes in Chechnya during the second Chechen war, and of the ongoing unrest and associated abuses in the North Caucasus. The Swedish Helsinki Committee, together with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Federation International des Droits de l’Homme, the Demos Center and the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society will hold public hearings on Chechnya in Berlin.

Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia

$60,000*
To defend the legal rights of Russian servicemen. Soldiers’ Mothers will provide legal aid and education to the victims of hazing and cruel treatment in military units. It will also monitor and publish recommendations on the jurisdictional conflicts between the Military and Civilian Prosecutors that arise during hazing investigations. These conflicts stem from ambiguities in the recently amended Russian Criminal Procedure Code.

Youth Human Rights Movement

$75,000 *
To strengthen a network of youth NGOs and promote the development of young human rights activists. In addition to networking and training, the project will include a mini-grants and small grants program, to provide organizational and project support to smaller, regional groups that have little access to financial resources; lack management and public relations skills; and are inexperienced in running public campaigns.

Za Prava Cheloveka (ZPC)

$67,000
To improve the treatment of those who are incarcerated in Russia’s system of prisons and penal colonies. ZPC will investigate violations of prisoners’ rights, bring legal measures and public pressure to bear to remedy such violations, and hold public tribunals to review particularly egregious cases. In addition, ZPC will provide funding to four organizations in its regional network, which will assist in implementing the project.