Russia’s military aggression, kleptocratic networks, leadership among authoritarian states and nonstate actors and its export of authoritarian ideology render it a threat not just to Ukraine and other neighboring states but around the world. Although Russia projects power globally, at home it is deeply divided. Substantial segments of the population continue to favor democracy and seek opportunities for civic engagement and local activism. The states in Eurasia with the most democratic credentials, such as Armenia and Georgia, have the greatest opportunities to gain support from Europe and channel the aspirations of the populations to democracy, preservation of national identity, and European integration. In Central Asia, even deeply authoritarian governments look for ways to have more international prestige and domestic legitimacy. Growing portions of the local populations identify with Ukraine and seek to redress their own grievances against Russian domination. Increasingly, civil society throughout the Eurasia region articulates the premise that for the long term, only democratic values can protect state sovereignty against imperialist encroachment. Together with the core institutes, NED supports multifaceted programming to bolster the capacity of civil society, media, labor unions, and political parties to hold their governments accountable to citizens. Beyond the Eurasia region, NED works to build networks among civil society organizations to better understand and resist Russia’s authoritarian influence.

By the Numbers

Regional Focus Areas

Tech Tools to Support Free Speech

At the heart of NED’s work in the region is the need to maintain access to objective information for local populations. Across the region, government actors are attempting to limit the space for citizens to distribute information and communicate freely online. NED supports projects developing technological tools to maintain local populations’ access to internet resources and information, programs that bring together the region’s IT professional communities to produce new responses to closing online spaces, and initiatives drawing attention to ways that the world’s biggest online platforms can better position themselves to support civil society.

Expanding local language media

State-controlled Russian language outlets dominate the news across Eurasia, including outlets run by Central Asian governments and by the Russian Federation. Independent outlets struggle to match the higher production value and broad reach of state media both online and on television. However, there is growing demand for independent information in local languages among young and dynamic populations who are rejecting the privileged position of the Russian language. NED supports a variety of independent outlets that produce timely news, engaging YouTube discussions, and high-quality investigations that reach people in their native language.

Countering Kleptocracy

States across Eurasia are either fundamentally kleptocratic or at serious risk of kleptocratic influences undermining fragile democratic institutions. NED supports a variety of programs to tackle this core issue, including the development of databases tracking politically exposed individuals, research initiatives mapping transnational criminal schemes, and hard-hitting investigative journalism. NED seeks to move beyond naming and shaming individuals to disrupting the supply chains that feed kleptocratic networks and the mechanisms that enable kleptocratic actors to plunder their countries’ wealth and undermine the rule of law.

Promoting Investigative journalism

Across the region, state actors use censorship and control of media resources to thwart transparency and accountability. NED supports media organizations to conduct high-quality, objective investigations to shed light on opaque processes like the functioning of military and security services, the corruption of state actors, and the evasion of sanctions mechanisms. These investigations have given local populations a better understanding of how their governments act and brought attention to the culpability of individuals in crimes with global significance.

Russia in the World

On a global scale, Russia continues to undermine democratic development and the work of civil society organizations; coordinate and empower other authoritarian exporters such as Cuba, North Korea, and Iran; distort and muddy the information space; manipulate international organizations; export repressive legislation and practices; and try to normalize authoritarianism. In response, NED supports an initiative to advance understanding of how Russia operates and bolster regional civil society organizations to ably respond. The goal is to establish a community of interest in different regions of the world and build the capacity of local civil society organizations to develop responses tailored to local circumstances, and connecting these initiates to regional and international networks.

Country Highlights

Russia

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian government has continued to escalate its domestic repression. Using an array of legal designations—from foreign agent to extremist—for organizations and individuals voicing opposition to government policies, along with harsh wartime political censorship and outright violence against those deemed enemies, Putin’s administration has restricted the space for Russians to speak their minds and exercise political agency. This has forced many of the most prominent voices for democracy to leave the country or placed them behind bars. Nevertheless, an enthusiasm for political activism remains, as was clear with the popularity of anti-war political candidates who attracted support and attention but were not permitted to run for office. Similarly, a high level of demand remains among Russians for objective information, as they seek news and information online, especially in times of crisis, such as with Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk and the terrorist attack in Moscow. The spike in readership for independent news outlets during critical moments speaks to the broad trust they enjoy beyond their core audience.

NED sees its fundamental role as strengthening and supporting Russian democrats through a range of community-building activities. By supporting projects that are keeping political prisoners and human rights violations in the public eye, NED shows solidarity for Russia’s democrats in a very difficult time. Acknowledging the dangers facing those active inside Russia, NED has also supported emergency assistance programs to help democrats at risk relocate and integrate into new societies. NED programming has helped activists build communities in exile and shape their messaging to continue to reach and be relevant to a Russian audience. Russia’s future is not set in stone, and NED will continue to support efforts to envision and articulate the country’s potential democratic future.

Grantee Spotlight

Free Russia Foundation provides multifaceted support to Russia's pro-democracy community, coordinating international efforts to counter authoritarianism and advance the vision of a future Russia that is free, democratic, and at peace with its neighbors. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Free Russia has provided direct support to thousands of activists forced into exile and has partnered with Belarusian and Ukrainian civil society to advocate for international accountability for Russian war crimes.

Russia’s embrace of autocracy has increased the importance of support for political prisoners. Russian opposition leader and Vice President of Free Russia Foundation Vladimir Kara-Murza was one of thousands who was unjustly imprisoned for his outspoken criticism of Russia's war in Ukraine. In response, Free Russia Foundation engaged in a global campaign to raise awareness of the plight of political prisoners in Russia and advocate for their release. On August 1, 2024, Vladimir was released, along with 15 other prisoners, in the largest US-Russia prisoner exchange since the Cold War. For the first time in nearly 40 years, Russian dissidents were included in the exchange, a feat that would not have been possible without public campaigns that highlighted the names of these Russian activists and told their stories to the international community. Thousands of political prisoners remain behind bars in Russia today, and Free Russia continues to raise their profiles in international forums and organize letter-writing campaigns to combat their isolation. For their contributions to the vision of a free and democratic Russia and steadfast support for political prisoners, the NED honored both Vladimir and his wife Evgenia Kara-Murza with the Democracy Service Medal in 2024.

Grantee Spotlight

In 2023, the International Republican Institute launched an initiative to amplify the perspectives of Russian independent media about how dynamics on global information platforms created and run by western tech companies have hindered their work. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many tech companies pulled out from Russia. In an effort to abide by sanctions regimes and reduce the spread of Kremlin propaganda, the leading tech companies limited the functioning of their platforms inside Russia. Russian independent media that rely on these platforms and services have lost traffic and revenue as a result. Efforts to reach out to tech companies to find a solution to this issue were, in the perspective of these media, largely unsatisfactory.

In response, IRI has led an effort to elevate these concerns and facilitate a dialogue between Russian civil society and the leaders of western tech companies. In January 2024, IRI published a report gathering the perspectives of 16 Russian civil society and media organizations to trace the effects of choices made by Western tech companies on their work. The report highlighted issues with search engines, lack of access to advertising and monetization, and a lack of access to software as artificially damaging the sustainability and reach of Russian independent media. Some of these structures have also systematically privileged propaganda outlets and the government perspective. IRI’s work has led to some initial progress in reducing the dominance of propaganda channels and has provided a basis for further productive dialogue.

Eurasia Regional

As a new generation of democratic activists consume information, express themselves, and interact across the same digital platforms, it is ever more apparent that the region’s civil societies are fighting for a shared vision of democratic transformation. Moreover, as new generations grow up in an increasingly globalized world, more activists can collaborate to fight for fundamental freedoms and more transparent, accountable governance. Shared challenges, such as kleptocratic governance, closing civic space, and a restrictive media environment, lend themselves to regional collaborations that reflect the transnational nature of current threats to democracy.

NED supports regional programming that promotes collaboration between activists from different countries and that addresses common problems. As more local partners improve their institutional capacities by learning from their peers, NED expects to support both an accelerating rate of collaborative innovation at the regional level as well as NGOs’ expanded use of their new skills and knowledge at the country level. By supporting strong organizations that can expand their work to new contexts, NED facilitates shared responses to problems that require a regional perspective, such as countering transnational kleptocracy and supporting Internet freedom.

Grantee Spotlight

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) is the gold standard for election monitoring.  With almost thirty years of experience in educating young and first-time voters and conducting electoral monitoring missions in Georgia, ISFED is a leader in election related work in Eurasia. Since its founding, the organization has been successful in building out a 400-member network covering all municipalities to monitor dozens of elections and advocate for improvements to the country’s Election Code.

Given the ruling party’s increasing intolerance for independent voices, supporting organizations such as ISFED has been crucial to shedding light on electoral malfeasance while also building coalitions within civil society to hold the government accountable to its constituents’ needs. ISFED is launching a comprehensive Get Out the Vote campaign and monitoring mission for Georgia’s parliamentary elections in October 2024. The pre-election period has been marred by intimidation and physical attacks against leaders in the opposition and civil society by the current ruling party. ISFED’s work will ensure that despite these tactics, Georgians’ voices will be heard.

Grantee Spotlight

One of Central Asia’s premier independent media, Kloop Media, has demonstrated extraordinary resilience amidst intense government persecution. Kloop’s website was blocked in September 2023 and in September 2024, Kyrgyz authorities officially shuttered Kloop’s in-country legal entity. Many of Kloop’s most well-known or vulnerable staff have gone into exile, lest they face prosecution or arrest. Despite these challenges, Kloop continues to publish in Russian and Kyrgyz, conduct investigations into state crime and corruption, and cover politics and daily news with staff operating both inside and outside of the country.

Kloop Media was founded in 2007 and first gained prominence in 2010 following its deep and comprehensive coverage of the April 2010 revolution. From its inception, journalism education has been core to its mission, and it has trained all of its young journalists. Kloop is a member of both the Global Investigative Journalism Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (OCCRP). It has worked with OCCRP to produce a number of landmark investigations, including Plunder and Patronage in the Heart of Central Asia, which investigated collusion between organized crime and Kyrgyz customs officials at the highest levels, and The Shadow Investor, which examined how Central Asian organized crime figures were bought into the highest levels of both the Kyrgyz and Uzbek political elites.

Armenia

Armenia’s frail democracy has made considerable progress in the six years since the 2018 Velvet Revolution. The Pashinyan government has presided over three free and fair elections, virtually eradicated petty corruption, and embarked on large-scale structural reforms. Even while under intense geopolitical pressure, the government has continued good faith efforts to engage in the peace process while diversifying Armenia’s foreign policy. However, the internal and external challenges the country’s nascent democracy faces are growing. Chronic capacity shortages persist in the administration and growing intolerance to oppositional voices has hampered the reform movement, leading to growing political apathy among large swathes of the population.

NED programming seeks to maintain Armenia’s democratic trajectory. NED prioritizes work to integrate refugees into Armenian society, to foster a sophisticated approach to security and foreign policy and to nurture the emergence of nation-wide networks of youth organizations.  Support for independent media remains a crucial part of the strategy, as balanced voices come under increased pressure and the information space is crowded with malign actors from both inside and outside the country. Long term strategy will focus on encouraging new actors into the civic space to bolster government accountability, increase civic participation, and prepare a secure, sovereign, and democratic Armenia.

Grantee Spotlight

The Restart Foundation for Science and Education was created in 2018 by student activists who joined together to articulate a public platform for reforms in education. Since then, the group has expanded its focus to include civic education, good governance, and foreign policy engagement for youth across Armenia. The country’s young people are often the most effected by economic and political turmoil especially since so many were serving in the military in two recent conflicts with Azerbaijan and many were displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh. Youth are disproportionally impacted by recent turmoil but often not well represented in decision making.

The organization builds common bonds through group discussions and festivals that celebrate a democratic Armenia and keeps the needs and priorities of the youth on the public agenda. Restart has created independent affiliate groups in the major cities of the country who pursue hyper-local initiatives while also building toward a national strategy for youth civic mobilization and education reform. This approach allows for enhanced coordination between disparate communities and an ambitious vision that hopes to empower young people to take part in municipal and national decision-making. Using its coalition of local organizations Restart is poised to play a greater role in Armenia’s political discourse at a national and local level.

Kazakhstan

Across Kazakhstan, citizens are re-examining their country’s economic and political relationship with Russia following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the cities, citizens are examining their colonial pasts, advancing new forms of Kazakh civic identity, and seeking to hold their government accountable for its kleptocratic crimes. In the regions, citizens seek equitable representation in civic, political, and economic life while building new civil society and media organizations where they never existed in the past. Nationwide,  activists, journalists, and citizens alike have increasingly reached the conclusion that the status quo that has existed through the Nazarbayev era into the Tokayev era is no longer tenable.

NED seeks to capitalize on an opportunity for change in Kazakhstan focusing on four issue areas. First, it will support efforts to build the capacity of Kazakh civil society and media, focusing on regions in which both the government and donors have failed to invest. Second, NED will support projects to examine Kazakhstan’s reliance on extractive industries and the kleptocratic systems, human rights violations, and challenges to Kazakh sovereignty that this system creates. Third, NED will invest in young political, civic, and academic leaders capable of giving voice to a viable democratic future. Fourth, NED will invest in Kazakhstan’s existing human rights defense and monitoring infrastructure.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan remains one of the world’s least free countries. State capture pervades political and economic institutions, which exist to maintain President Ilham Aliyev’s power and increase his wealth. Political dissent is routinely crushed and unsanctioned political opposition figures are regularly jailed on fraudulent charges. Independent civil society has been persecuted through waves of brutal crackdowns that aim to silence critical voices through imprisonment or exile. The country’s positioning as an alternative fossil fuel provider to Europe vis-à-vis Russia has insulated it from external pressure to improve its human rights standing.

NED programming seeks to open civic space in Azerbaijan by building networks that engage Azerbaijani citizens on fundamental human rights issues. Hybrid media organizations provide high-quality information that counter false governmental narratives and inform engagement with average citizens. As citizens understand and exercise their rights, calls for accountability and reform will be more difficult to ignore. NED funding also supports human rights defenders and lawyers, who stand as the last remaining bulwark against repression and who are best positioned to advocate for a human rights approach to Azerbaijan in the EU.

ResEarch and Analysis

International Forum Analysis: Foreign Agents Laws

Since Russia enacted laws regulating “foreign agents” in 2012, a growing number of countries around the world are following suite. These Russian-style laws broadly stifle civil society and pose an existential threat to fundamental freedom and civic space. The International Forum for Democratic Studies is one of the leading platforms for research and analysis into this phenomenon. 

Read the Forum’s analysis into the proliferation of foreign agents laws

Journal of Democracy Analysis: Why Russia's Democracy Never Began

In this Journal of Democracy essay, the author argues that Russia never went through a democratic transition after the collapse of the Soviet Union and that the temporary weakening of the autocratic system was mistaken for a transition. The same Soviet-era political elite class and the same formal and informal institutional arrangement mostly remained in place.

Read "Why Russia's Democracy Never Began"

International Forum Report: Fighting Kleptocracy in an Era of Geopolitics

This report analyzes how the counter-kleptocracy agenda intersects with, and is at times superseded by, competing geopolitical priorities. Additionally, the report analyzes how the anti-kleptocracy agenda has been shaped by geopolitical concerns across three key focuses of foreign policy: great power confrontation with Russia; the superpower challenge from China; and the competition for influence in the Global South.

Read The Report