Official position/function in relation to the conflict

The Free Russia Foundation is an American NGO created in 2014 by a group of Russian emigrants “to unite the Russian community abroad and support pro-democratic forces within Russia”. Since then, the Foundation has implemented a number of programs in support of Russian pro-democratic movements, projects related to assistance to Russian and Ukrainian political prisoners, Russian emigrants, as well as projects in the field of combating propaganda.

The Foundation works with American politicians, members of Congress, senators, executive officials, and representatives of the expert community in the West, providing them with an analysis of events in Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe.

Actions in relation to the conflict region

In its activities, the Foundation pays considerable attention to Ukraine. The House of Free Russia operates in Kyiv. On the organization’s website, it is called “an alternative embassy of Russian civil society in Ukraine.”

One of the directions of the House is EmigRussia, a humanitarian information project of Free Russia Foundation in Ukraine. Its functions include providing humanitarian assistance, “support to Russian political refugees and emigrants, as well as raising awareness of Ukrainian and Russian societies about who these people are and why they had to leave Russia that we have now, to the Ukraine they want to believe in.” During the political crisis in Belarus, the House opened a special line of consultations for citizens of Belarus on the migration law of Ukraine.

In June 2019, the Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Russian Federation recognized Free Russia Foundation as an “undesirable organization” and banned its activities in Russia.