MacArthur Foundation closes branch in Moscow because of falling into the “stop-list” – RBC

The meeting of the Federation Council

Photo: TASS

Charitable Foundation, MacArthur decided to close its Moscow branch. This is stated in a message posted on its website. The reason for this decision was the inclusion of the Fund in the “stop-list” of organizations, whose activities on Russian territory is undesirable.

The report states that a number of Russian laws and the inclusion of the Fund in the “stop-list”, “clearly indicate that the Russian authorities do not want the continued presence of the MacArthur Foundation in Russia ».

« We are completely independent of the US government and do not receive any funding from it. We will never support a political activity or other actions that could be reasonably interpreted as “undesirable”, – added to the Fund.

Information on the latest MacArthur grant is dated 2012 year. Then the program fund “Human Rights” has accumulated $ 685 thousand., Sakharov Center received $ 300 thousand. For the project “The Internet as a medium of realization of freedom”, according to the program fund “Russia in global politics” in 2012, grants totaling $ 3.34 We received 5 million organizations (including the HSE and the Carnegie Moscow Center). The Fund also participated in the financing of the European University in St. Petersburg.

In addition to the MacArthur Foundation on the list of the Federation Council includes another 11 companies are: Soros Foundation, Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute International Affairs, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Foundation “Education for Democracy”, the East European Democratic Centre, Ukrainian World Coordinating Board, the World Congress of Ukrainians and Crimean field mission on Human Rights.

The initiative to create a “patriotic stop -list “it was announced in late June, the head of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev. This idea was supported by his colleagues in the Federation Council.

At the beginning of July, the newspaper “Izvestia” reported that this list can be extended another 8 institutions – the Ford Foundation, Jamestown Foundation, the Foundation “Open Russia”, Fund “Eurasia” Institute. Albert Einstein.

at the end of May, the number of foreign agents was included Foundation “Dynasty.” Via the Ministry of Justice stated that “the fact of compliance” of the organization featured a “foreign agent” was established during routine checks.