Where to get money for soft power

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The mass media published details of the implementation of the American soft power policy – “Development of Democracy in Russia.” In 2014 the National Endowment for Democracy, which was financed by the US and distributed grants all over the world, spent $9.3 million on support for Russian non-commercial organizations. In comparison with 2013 the financing grew by $1.3 million. The need for Moscow to provide a soft power policy was intensively discussed before the economic crisis of 2014; however, today the topic has paled into insignificance in the media.

However, Igor Morozov, a Russian politician, member of the Federation Council, says that “Russia is a major donor of assistance of development for 48 world countries. Special funds are allocated for these purposes. Last year it allocated 500 million. Before the crisis, we were close to one billion. This sum was announced by ex-Finance Minister Kudrin at the conference on the program of assistance of international development. One billion! Can you imagine the financial support of soft power which we could have effectively used for our compatriots?”

However, the funds were allocated for programs to encow international development. This is about the struggle against poverty and the support of education in developing countries. “We have been a donor for 15 years. You know how we allocate these funds? They go through the Ministry of Finance to the Global Fund for the struggle against malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and other infectious diseases. They are used for various programs of the UN, UNICEF.

Rossotrudnichestvo many times raised this issue: why can’t we use the funds for the post-Soviet countries? Why can’t we use the money to build new schools where students are taught in Russian, libraries and hospitals? There are four countries of the former Soviet Union on the list of the United Nations: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Moldova. Our compatriots are residents of these countries,” Morozov says.

He pays attention to the fact that when “the Europeans address our place at all official levels they say that they will continue to work with Central Asia. We see that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe created a group of friendship with the Kyrgyz Parliament. Today the Kyrgyz Parliament is a partner of Democracy with the Parliamentary Assembly. This is the second year we are deprived of the right to speak about this.”

According to the senator, “the funds, which Russian allocates to soft power for the program of assistance of development, are used for other regions: in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. And nobody knows that the textbooks are different, including for the Russian language in Moldova and Armenia. They are issued by the World Bank with the use of Russian money. No one knows about the hospitals and schools which the World Bank builds with the use of Russian money.”

Morozov says that “Being an operator of assistance in development of the CMP program, Rossotrudnichestvo stays neutral. Frankly speaking, the struggle has been going on for five years without any progress in this direction. But it is our tool. It is an opportunity to raise our compatriots in Africa, where the programs of the World Bank are relied on. But we can rely on ourselves and use our own programs, raise our compatriots, involving them in this work in the context of programs for the struggle against poverty, literacy programs, job creation in the agricultural sector.

Being a donor, we spend colossal sums of money. And this is the potential of work with our compatriots and the potential of creating opportunities to enter the economies of their underdeveloped countries, as well as in politics.”