Statement by Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad

Recently, the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad has once again become the target of a massive provocative campaign launched by a group of European media under the guise of a “journalistic investigation.” For the third year in a row, it has been flooded by slander and misinformation that distort the actual goal and practices of its activities which are to assist Russian compatriots in protecting their legitimate interests in their respective countries of residence.

The choice of time for launching another dirty attack on the Russian human rights organisation was not accidental: obsessed with the idea of rescuing the criminal Kiev regime, the leaders of a number of European countries are trying to actively cobble up an anti-Russia front in all areas, and to wipe out everything that is Russian or “pro-Moscow.” This caveman-like goal is extrapolated to human rights, including the ethnic minority issues. Millions of Russian compatriots living abroad, who, in their overwhelming majority, support Russia’s policy, the goals of the special military operation of the Russian Federation to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, and to protect the civilians of Donbass have been targeted. Attempts are being made to have them change their minds, to intimidate them, to make ridiculous political accusations against them, to deport, or even to imprison them.

Each time, these propaganda campaigns are becoming increasingly aggressive and deceitful, as they repeat old tired clichés about the Foundation allegedly “funding spies, criminals, and propagandists.” Most of the accusations come down to the long-winded assertion of its “cooperation with Russian special services in conducting influence operations in the EU countries.”

It is quite obvious that these publications are based on a mixture of outright lies, covered up by speculation that has already been worn out from repeated use, which once again confirms the open participation of foreign special services in plotting this provocation, which fact, incidentally, is reported by some of the journalists involved in it. At the same time, the “investigators” use not only publicly available information about the activities of our NGO, but also publish materials obtained illegally from electronic correspondence used by the Foundation for communication with its partners. The results of such a brazen hack of the Foundation’s email by special services are presented as a leak.

Through their publications, these media outlets, the list of which has almost doubled compared with last year, reveal the true goals of this campaign which are to compromise the Foundation, to push it out of Europe, to intimidate its foreign partners, and to force our compatriots to refuse to interact with it.

There’s a script for conducting such a “journalistic investigation.” Questions, which look more like an interrogation, are sent to the Foundation and some of its European partners, and very tight deadlines are set for answering them. Naturally, we ignore these provocative questions, as we do not consider it acceptable to provide justification for our actions.

One of the main accusations against us is circumvention of the EU sanctions imposed on the Foundation in 2023. We stated earlier that these sanctions were groundless and unjustified. The Foundation’s activities are carried out outside the EU jurisdiction, and cooperation with individuals and legal entities in EU countries in the field of human rights is carried out in accordance with Russian legislation in the field of civil law and on the basis of agreements that were concluded, notably, with account taken of the requirements of national legislation in each country.

Reacting to yet another “revelation,” we reaffirm that the Foundation has never cooperated with any special services, nor has it ever employed any members of the special services engaged in influence operations in Western countries, including the EU. All the media’s assertions to this effect represent a gross lie and a blatant provocation.

We emphasise that the main purpose of the Foundation’s activities, as enshrined in its Charter and the regulatory legal documents of the Russian Federation governing its functions, is to provide assistance to our compatriots living abroad in order to ensure their human rights and freedoms and to protect their legal interests. Our efforts are, in fact, aimed at creating the necessary conditions for non-discriminatory existence of our compatriots in the countries of their residence, of which they should be considered an integral part, since they make an actual contribution to the economic, cultural, and social development and prosperity of these countries with their work and intellect.

We reserve the right to hold liable organisers and perpetrators of this provocative campaign targeting our NGO and publicly making false accusations against the Foundation, its employees and our partners in a number of EU member countries. In this context, we will actively use the platforms provided by international human rights organisations and the rightly-minded media community. I think that the investigative and judicial bodies of the Russian Federation will have their say in this complex situation.

We will continue to be guided by the principles and norms of international law and human rights law. We will use them as a basis to provide legal assistance and support to our compatriots in need of such assistance, including the use of national mechanisms of judicial systems in the countries of residence of our compatriots and the use of international human rights entities for this purpose.