Growth of Social Activism

Over the recent years, social activism has witnessed aggressive growth. People use their own effort to compensate for the deficit of social justice.

Some people join protests, and they have every right to do that. Others come up with new ways for tackling social problems and contribute to social innovation ^* .

For example, “My Project for My Country!”, a competition ^* organised by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, has admitted over a thousand unique citizen activism projects addressing social problems and social injustice. The projects range from recycling plastic into skateboards to the organisation of municipal environmental watches and child bereavement programmes, and many others ^* .

The "My Project for My Country!" Award Winners

First Deputy Secretary of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation

The report of the Civic Chamber on the status of the civic society for the year 2017 was written incorporating an in-depth analysis of the situation in the regions. It reflects virtually all the aspects of everyday life. I wish to underline that, for the first time ever, the Report on the status of the civic society touches upon the subject of effective patriotism to which a whole chapter is devoted in the Report. What is active patriotism? These are not just words, these are deeds. On 5 December, as a result of activism shown by the Civic Chamber, among others, the President of the Russian Federation endorsed a new date to be marked, the Volunteer's Day.

Volunteers are exactly the kind of youth milieu who are permeated with the same feelings of civic patriotism which, in final analysis, are to reflect on the quality of life of all the citizens.

I must also point out that in our country, veterans organisations' message has been very powerful, both military service veterans and combat veterans' message as well as that of senior citizens or civilian sector veterans. A special mention must be made of Russia's human search movement which unites 81 regions and approximately 1500 organisations, who do both field and archival searches, helping family members find their missing relatives who fell victim in battle during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Effective patriotism is precisely the bit each citizen of the Russian Federation can do in his or her job or place, in their region in order to improve the situation, to improve our common notion that we are residents of the Russian Federation.

It is particularly noteworthy that the Report on the status of the civic society has been written in very good, easy to understand terms and will be comprehensible to each and every citizen who would ever lay their hands on it. The Report is available at the web site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. Therefore, I invite everyone to be active in participating in our country's life and to send all your proposals and projects to the civic chambers, both regional one and the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. They will be subsequently taken into consideration in the Report on the status of the civic society, and, some of the ideas might find their way into the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly.

Another example is the Communities Map, a joint project of the Russian Reporter magazine and the Agency for Social Information. The project is focused on the promotion of best practices of progressive communities in addressing social problems ^* .

In September 2017, Google, with the support of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, launched the Beyond Capitals platform ^* . Its aim is to identify the most proactive, talented, and caring people outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg to tell others throughout the country about their projects ^* .

Those who are driven by paramount values prefer action. It is an action that helps them make the society friendlier, more comfortable and fair. These people either step in for the state by taking up some of its functions or they act in its support. “Active patriotism” looks a more appropriate way of naming this nation-shaping phenomenon.

Active patriotism rests on three pillars. The first one is the moral sense, being the sense of justice. Then there comes the realism, as active citizens set realistic and achievable targets. Finally, the third one is the desire for a better life for the country and its people, and the desire for the changes that will make Russia the pride of all Russians and a role model for the rest of the world.

Active patriotism is about helping those who are weaker. It is about protecting national interests domestically and abroad. Active patriotism is about major and smaller projects to revive the country’s economy, develop its culture and improve the quality of education. Patriotism is like a seasoning that goes so well with the movements of Russian history lovers, local history fans, and tourism enthusiasts. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation plays a very special role in the creation of domestic tourism promotion tools (i.e. “Holidays in Russia”, “Crimea in Detail”). It has set up a hotline for travellers, and it keeps focus on relevant legislation and children recreation activities ^* .

Promotion of the ‘Patriotic Education of Citizens’ state programme and the revival of mentoring as part of “The Generations Relay” project is strongly supported by Russian veterans organisations. These include the Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans, Paratroopers Union of Russia, Brothers in Arms, Russian Heroes Association, Labour Merit of Russia, Russian Union of Veterans, and others. Members of veterans organisations are eager to share their knowledge and experience, traditions and values with the younger generation of Russians.

A whole range of federal laws regarding veterans’ rights to decent social services currently need revision. Such laws include laws “On Veterans” (No. 5-FZ of 12.01.1995), “On the Status of Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Russian Federation, and Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory” (No. 4301-I of 15 January 1993).

However, some regional authorities avoid dealing directly with veteran organisation members and prefer not to rely on them in their work. Veteran organisations thus have to be in a continuous struggle for their rights.

The same is true for elderly people. Non-profit organisations that support seniors are already in operation all over the country. There are dedicated charitable foundations (e.g. The Joy of Old Age, Sofia, Good Deed, Union of Generations etc. ^* ). It is the public effort that helped escalate the topic of developing general standards of care for the elderly and the disabled up to the governmental level ^* .

Elderly people are a notable part of the civil society, and they deserve being proud of their input in national development. They would rather work with the younger generation to share their experience and traditions than protect their modest rights fighting with heartless bureaucrats of all levels. It is an efficient partnership between the public and the state alone that can form the basis for further civil society development.

Today, there is a number of areas where social activism has produced positive results. At the end of the 1990s, the international Downside Up foundation was probably the only big organisation in the country to help families with children with the Down syndrome. Nowadays, communities and organisations supporting such families exist in virtually every region of Russia. Many of those NPOs are founded by parents with special needs children. These NPOs now widely group into communities that care about the lives of their children after the parents are no longer there to take care of them.

Our country has been on the reform of the children’s homes system since 2014. The reform was initiated by activist public organisations (i.e. Volunteers Helping Orphans Charitable Foundation, Perspektivy Charitable Organization, and others) ^* . They managed to win the attention of governmental authorities and get across their idea that a child benefits far more from staying at a family-type children's home rather than from any form of “institutional childhood”. For these children, it is better to get back to their families or to a foster home as soon as possible. As a result of this effort, a new law has been adopted and a reform of the whole network of orphanage institutions has been launched, which reform is being carried out under the control of civil society.

Public monitoring of the children’s homes reform

Russian society reacts strongly against child abuse in orphanages. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has sent a request to the General Prosecutor’s Office asking to inspect all children’s homes in Russia and assess their personnel’s adequacy for their jobs.

There are however more problems in this sensitive area of child protection. Public discussions focus on insufficient support measures for families with children and disputable cases when child protection services take children away from their families ^* .

President Putin’s decree on the Decade for Childhood in Russia was a most important achievement of child protection activists in 2017. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held public hearings on the draft Decade for Childhood Action Plan till 2020 ^* .

There is a true boom of inclusivity in education , both in the private and the public sectors. There emerge culture and sports initiatives aiming to engage special needs children and adults in the social life. These initiatives cover music (e.g. the White Ship project in Khabarovsk ^* ), social theatres, and the Paralympic movement. The Special Child Opportunity Map ^* portal has been set up for parents to select a facility close to their home where their special needs child can study, spend his or her free time, or exercise.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is the initiator of a project to create affordable recreation opportunities for disabled children. So far, not all children’s camps and hobby centres can provide a favourable environment for inclusive recreation.

Faith-based organisations now play a more visible role in community service. There are unique projects in each confession. Community service projects of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia's Central Spiritual Governance for Muslims are well-known and deservingly win public attention and respect. Other confessions have excellent projects, too, i.e. Caritas of the Transfiguration Catholic Bishopric in Novosibirsk that helps women in difficult situations.

Society does change, although the change is stepwise. People, even those who say they never used to be too enthusiastic to donate, start helping, their help extending to not children only, but also to adults. There are dedicated foundations, like “Live. Adult Aid Foundation” or the foundation of Svetlana Izambayeva, which supports HIV positive people. Yet, we have to admit that the number of foundations helping adults is still very low.

Russia now has an institutionalized structure for the protection of rights. There are Human Rights Commissioners of the Russian Federation, human rights commissioners in the RF constituents, Children’s Commissioner and children’s commissioners in the regions, the Business Ombudsman, the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, public monitoring commissions, as well as there are non-profit human rights groups. For many years, human rights activists have stood up to bureaucratic injustice, callousness, and despotism.

A number of resonant publications have drawn public attention to the life of patients of psychoneurological boarding facilities. Statistically, almost 150 thousand people are patients of such boarding facilities in Russia. Approximately a third of them are ex-orphans with permanent disabilities or psychiatric disorders. The way these facilities operate and care for their patients has made it to the top of the public discussion agenda. This discussion goes on with the direct involvement of relevant government agencies. Eventually, the public pressure (including that from the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation) has caused the Ministry of Labour and Social Development of the Russian Federation to set up a task force to deal with the reform of psychoneurological boarding facilities.

Efforts of activists are driving public justice humanization. Sincethe Soviet times, human rights defenders have been talking about the inhumanity and repressiveness of the penitentiary and law enforcement system in general. The currently ongoing humanization of public justice happens through interaction between the society and the state. For years, human rights defenders have been demanding that the government improve conditions in detention facilities, requesting justice in court and milder punishment for minor offences. Activists and rights defenders, acting through public monitoring boards, have gained access to prisons. They are consistently involved in investigations of arbitrary arrests and other abuse of law by enforcement agencies. They raise discussions of the disastrous state of medical facilities in penal colonies ^* , and philanthropists are involved in rehabilitation and resocialization ^* of ex-convicts.

Source: Expert ONLINE magazine ^*

Another vulnerable group is migrants. Civil society stands up against violations of migrant employees’ rights ^* and invests effort in the creation of an effective system for integration of migrants into the Russian society. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has for several years deliberated the need to develop a programme for the social integration of second generation migrants to be supported by the state and the society.

Contradictory social integration processes, primarily among younger generations, result in some younger people getting under the influence of extremist propaganda. This propaganda usually finds its way through the dissemination of interethnic and interreligious hatred and antagonism.

A fundamental approach to dealing with this problem lies in a pivotal change as far as the efficiency of social integration of youths. This approach is to focus on helping the younger ones assimilate the basic values of the Russian society and turn these values into a real motivation in their private and social lives.

A key element here could be the creation of a system of horizontal monitoring, including the establishment of reference groups for the youths (i.e. youth associations, religious communities, ethnic communities etc.). Civil society institutions are to play an important role in the creation of such system ^* . They are to be put in charge of public monitoring of these communities’ alignment with civil values and national regulations. It is equally important to have alignment across civil society institutions with the horizontal monitoring agenda. These civil society institutions are to identify those who rise up against public norms and who happen to be under extremist or, sometimes, terrorist influences.

It is extremely important that civil society institutions support the initiatives and projects of conventional religious associations educating about the basics of relevant religious doctrines. On the one hand, this support will help overcome barriers between the circular and the religious society. On the other hand, this will convince people that extremist and, moreover, terrorism, cut cross with the basics of respective religious doctrines.

For now, neither regional nor local authorities are resourceful enough to come up with programmes preventing interethnic tension, such programmes involving socially oriented NPOs.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has developed and presented to its partners a proposal for the Russian Federation government to pass a guideline that will ensure that a standard allowance (1-2% of total estimated costs) is included in draft budgets of all investment projects in Russian regions. The purpose of this allowance is to fund inter-ethnic tension prevention initiatives. These initiatives are to be put through expert assessment by regional chambers and they are to be promoted through the joint agenda of the investor, local authorities, and civil society institutions.

Counteracting terrorist propaganda

Vice-Chairman of the CCRF Commission on Harmonization of Interethnic and Interreligious Relations

The Russian Federation makes incomprehensible efforts to fight against terrorist threat not only inside the country but also overseas. The anti-terrorist operation carried out by Russia within the territory of Syria under international law is a testimony of our uncompromising attitude when it comes to the fight against international terrorism. Terrorism today is changing the forms and tools of influencing the minds. Recruiters of terrorist enterprises spread aggressive propaganda on the Internet. Effective response to the propaganda of terrorist and extremist ideology requires the consolidation of society. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation makes vigorous efforts in this direction.

Since 2015, the Civic Chamber Counter-Terrorism Coordination Council has been assisting the State governmental authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation, members of the media, our colleagues from the regional Civic chambers in the conducted work to suppress the spread of terrorist ideology nationwide. We held various events in the hinterlands, implemented interesting projects in conjunction with public and youth associations, law enforcement agencies, legislative structures, religious and migrant communities. We have developed and published brochures "Methodological materials on countering pseudo-religious extremism", "IGIL is a threat to humanity", numerous videos on anti-terrorism subject-matters have been prepared. These days, in the area of religion, an unprecedented information attack of our fellow citizens’ minds - especially young people - takes place.

We face double standards, double meanings; the heartstrings of religious believers are being played upon. Together with representatives of traditional religions we need to develop new forms of work, to change approaches to the ideology formation system, to search for the effective methods of counterpropaganda to pseudo-religious extremism.

We have repeatedly discussed these issues with representatives of traditional religious confessions, scientists and experts in the course of roundtable discussions held in the Civic Chamber, during international conferences and symposia on OSCE, UN platforms, and during working meetings in the CIS countries. I am confident that the work we do together has been contributing to the consolidation of efforts and to the effectiveness of interaction between civil society institutions, state authorities and religious associations with a view to ensure stability, peace and harmony in our society.

Chairperson of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Youth Affairs, Development of Volunteerism and Patriotic Upbringing

GOOD WILL underlies the activities of any public socially oriented organisation. This GOOD WILL, aimed at helping specific people and the country at large, unites us, strengthens our civic society and its bonds with the state.

During the outgoing year, our commission has been giving a great deal of consideration to the issues of developing volunteerism. In this context, we can refer to certain achievements (we spoke of them in our report), and we can cite problems, we have formulated work plans for the next year. I wish to emphasize that a reference point in our work has been the understanding of how important it is to develop and support ACTIVE PATRIOTISM, to support those citizens who believe that a PATRIOT is primarily a PERSON OF ACTION.

Historically in Russia, a huge contribution to inculcating patriotism in citizens has been made by veterans' organisations, patriots' organisations, human search public organisations, paramilitary patriotic clubs. Our country has been implementing the government sponsored programme for bringing up citizens of the Russian Federation to be patriotic.

In furtherance of the Federal programme, regional patriotic programmes have been adopted and are being carried out. This is absolutely appropriate, however our selective monitoring of such programmes indicates that there are considerable differences not only in the financing of such programmes but also in the efficiency criteria, qualitative indicators. And this is definitely inappropriate. We cannot allow ourselves to have disparity or lack of coordination in such a matter as patriotic upbringing. We are confident that patriotic content must be present in the activities of any public organisation, institution when each and every event is being held. The activities of our commission are aimed at coordinating volunteers' movement, assisting in working out amendments to the Federal law, eLabourating action plan "Assisting in Development of Volunteers' Movement (Volunteerism) in the Russian Federation", as well as the Concept for development of volunteers' movement (volunteerism); monitoring, roundtable sessions dedicated to the activities pursued by the commission in its work would allow it to focus, next year, on helping the regions identify the problem areas and seek possible solutions of the problems using our joint efforts.

GOOD WILL and ACTIVE PATRIOTISM are the mainstay for development and flourishing of our country and civic society.

Volunteering has gained truly massive scale in Russia. After thousands of people took part in fighting wildfires and rescuing people during the floods in 2010, volunteering has become a generally recognised social practice for active citizens. The all-Russia social movement “Victory Volunteers” has woven its name in history by its projects of real social value and scale. The mass patriotism of Russians is supported by the success of the Immortal Regiment march campaign. A tremendous number of younger people are put together by their willingness to do good and help those who need their help.

The so-called Scouting Movement of Russia has discovered thousands of burial grounds of Russian soldiers killed during the Great Patriotic war, helped identify their remains and preserve the memory of the war heroes. Established in 2013, the pan-Russian social “Scouting Movement of Russia” with a mission to commemorate those who died while defending our country is one of the largest organisations engaging in scouting operations and military archives search. The movement unites dozens of thousands of scouting volunteers of all ages. This movement has about 1,500 scouting teams in 81 regions of Russia. It was not created “top down”, this is another shining example of how the Russian society understands justice: the war is not over until the last soldier is committed to the earth.

In 2016-2017, theCivic Chamber of the Russian Federation supported the drafting of amendments to Federal Law of11 August 1995 No. 135-FZ “On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organisations”. These amendments are to regulate volunteering. An action plan for the facilitation to the development of volunteering in the Russian Federation, as well as the Volunteering Development Concept until 2025 have been prepared and approved.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation was actively involved in the making of 5 December the official Volunteer Day in our country. A respective decree by the Russian Federation President was put into effect on 27 November 2017. ^* Besides, the year 2018 was officially proclaimed as the Year of Volunteer ^* .

Social volunteering develops in every region of Russia. Although slowly, governmental budget-funded organisations are becoming more open to the volunteers who are ready to help those under the care of such organisations. There is a greater regional presence of NPOs focusing on caring after children and adults in hospitals. Volunteers offer continuous tutorship projects at children’s homes. They are there to offer assistance to people with disabilities, nursing homes and psychoneurological facilities. This segment tends to organise into associations, i.e. the Association of Volunteer Centres, the Union of Volunteer Organisations and Movements (SVOD) ^* , and others.

The blood donor movement gains momentum . Active engagement of citizens and inclusion of volunteers in the donor movement has helped deal with the shortage of blood donors. The society now tends to treat regular donation of blood and its components as a norm. Russia has a network of Blood Donation Resource Centres whose mission is to coordinate the effort of the civil sector and the needs of the Blood Service. This work has been initiated by the National Healthcare Development Foundation (the Blood Donation Coordination Centre).

Environmental protection movements become more active. They no longer evolve with the support of grants from Western countries, but rather with the support of domestic resources and, sometimes, pure enthusiasm and active patriotism.

In 2017, announced by the President of the Russian Federation as the Year of Ecology, there was an upsurge in activities aiming to draw public attention to environmental issues.

Historically, since the Soviet times and until now, the most large-scale form of citizen participation in environmental protection has been the “ subbotniks ”, tree planting, and natural areas cleaning events. Action groups and organisations that stand up for the protection of the right to a healthy environment have become more active in the recent years. The best known ones among them are the defenders of the Khimki and the Selyatino forests, the protesters against nickel mining at the Khoper River, the movements against the construction of waste incineration facilities in Moscow Region and in Tatarstan.

The constitutional right to access information on environmental health is vulgarly violated. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has become a discussion venue for many of the foregoing problems.

Environmental organisations that have for years engaged in a continuous effort to address specific environmental problems pursue their work. These include the World Wildlife Fund, the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, the Sakhalin Environment Watch, Greenpeace Russia, and many others. New environmental NPOs are established, and they rapidly gain popularity, e.g. the Far Eastern Leopard, the Amur Tiger etc.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held the Marathon of Good Deeds in 2017. Over 100 thousand participants from 1,600 settlements across the country sent over 55 thousand reports on the environmental protection measures they took. Infographics

Source: 2017 Year of Ecology in Russia website ^*

Local communities take an increasingly active part in the transformation of the urban environment and their habitats. People no longer wait for local authorities to put a hand on their problems. Instead, they come up with an initiative. Active citizens ‘re-animate’ villages ^* and monotowns ^* . For example, activists of the Russian Union of Rural Youth have been implementing the Information and Advisory Crews project since 2012. They have held over 3,600 offsite events and informed about 240 thousand people on governmental support measures and ways towards self-fulfilment in rural areas.

Many towns spanning from the European part of Russia to its Far East now have independent Applied Urban Studies Centres. The Living Cities community is gaining momentum as well. The Archnadzor (“architectural supervision”) movement in Moscow and their colleagues stand up for the protection of architectural sites in Saint Petersburg. The TomSawyerFest project born in Samara has already gone beyond one city. This project focuses on public renovation and reconstruction of historic buildings with the assistance from local businesses and regional administrations.

Local activism helps with the shaping of a solid local community and its new identity. NPOs and civic activists take up the social task to strengthen solidarity, seek justice, and protect human and civil rights. What is more, they give the quickest feedback from ‘the fields’ that enables a better understanding of the problems and issues faced by individuals and gives a better idea about their thoughts, moods, and lives.

Philanthropy

In 2017, two thirds of Russians took part in charities ^* . In 2017, private donations to charities amounted to RUB 143 billion , or 0.34% of Russia’s GDP ^* .

A survey by VCIOM (the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre) in September 2017 shows that the number of individuals participating in some sort of charitable activities has grown by 20% over the past decade. In 2007, 50% respondents said they participate in charitable activities. Ten years later, 69% of Russians confessed to engaging in charities. Respondents from Moscow, St. Petersburg and respondents with higher education engage in charities more frequently than respondents from smaller towns, rural areas and respondents with secondary education ^* .

Direct cash transfers to the accounts of specific people in need have grown the most (4% in 2007 vs. 32% in 2017). The share of charitable foundations donors grew at a slower pace (17% in 2017 vs. 4% in 2007). An average donation ranges between RUB 101 and RUB 500 (24% of respondents) or between RUB 501 and RUB 1,000 (17%) ^* .

Charitable projects as a corporate social responsibility tool are the key driver for charity. Along with the traditional donation formats, new types of the so-called smart fundraising emerge, including NFC payments, interactive billboards, QR and barcode activated payments, geographical maps, and mobile apps. Charitable communities develop as an individual branch of charity in social networks and through interactive charities (e.g. Rusfond.Navigator).

Modern technologies and interactive venues in fundraising promote philanthropy and make it increasingly more accessible.

Charity technologies help people feel a ‘moment of joy’ from the help they have given and to see the visualisation of its immediate effect, even in a mock-up diagram. This is especially important when it comes to fundraising for the ‘unpopular’ areas involving global scale projects, e.g. funding of disease control studies because this is where no quick results are deliverable or visible. Smart fundraising gains scale, too. Smart fundraising is about comprehensive campaigns with fundraising activity running in the parallel in both the physical and the digital space, including websites, social media etc. This is also a good topic to discuss with children ^* .

Intellectual philanthropy enjoys rapid development . Lawyers, designers, accountants, and journalists engage in the rendering of their professional services to charitable organisations pro bono, which literally means “for the benefit of the society”. Some companies pay their employees for the time they spend working for charitable foundations.

The intensive evolution of charity in combination with the use of new technologies and social media has attracted dishonest players.

In 2016-2017, the professional charitable community has been fighting charity fraud, i.e. fake volunteers, pseudo charities etc.

There are fraudsters who put on a disguise of well-known charities. They set up organisations under the names matching major foundations and use lookalike domain names on the Internet. For example, the now blocked website http://www.podari-zhizn.com looked almost the same as the official website of the well-known Gift of Life foundation (Russian: Podari Zhizn ).

As part of its effort against unscrupulous organisations, Miloserdie.ru website has published fraudster identification guidelines ^* . The following are the key ones: a fake philanthropist does not provide comprehensive information on its organisation or its contacts, and no donations or expenses reports, or donations expense plans are posted on its website, etc. Major foundations put their stake on transparency. They release their reports in the public domain. They communicate proactively with the media and through social networks. But before these foundations on-board someone who seeks their help, they always double check his or her background ^* .

On the back of this, the Penza Region Civic Chamber has come up with the proposal to create the Association of Bona Fide Charitable Organisations, an informal structure for consolidation of fraud-countering effort, maintenance of a shared database of benefiters, and protection of interests of charitable organisations.

A joint effort of various organisations has brought up legislative initiatives promoting fraud prevention and consolidation of charities. The Charities Declaration of Fair Cash Collection Practices through Donation Boxes was signed in 2017 as part of the “Together Against Fraud” project. The project has already won the support of more than 250 organisations all over Russia.

One of the challenges in countering this phenomenon is the lack of information, and there are no ways for a proper assessment of the actual magnitude of this problem. In its response to an inquiry from the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation about ways of managing charity fraud, the Ministry of Internal Affairs wrote that “ministry statistics do not record acts of fraud by fake volunteers and dummy charities that collect donations on public transport and in the streets of Russian cities”. ^*

Therefore, the law needs to be amended in order to give the necessary protections to local communities and charities from fraud. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation will focus on charity fraud management in cooperation with relevant departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigation Committee.

To improve transparency and accessibility of philanthropy, in 2017 Russia joined the International Day of Charity and the #GenerousTuesday initiative for the second time. According to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), in Russia this year the movement was joined by 1800 partners from 227 localities spanning from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka. Over 2,000 various charity events were held, and the size of online donations was up 1.8 times vs. the previous year ^* .

Another effort to improve transparency and popularise philanthropy was the launch of the online public voting, or “primaries”, project. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation started this in October 2017 to discuss and promote potential nominees to the National Award in the charitable sphere. A special popular vote module was made available on the websites of all civic chambers of all Russian regions. The system helped to find information on philanthropists from remote areas and smaller places, not only those that are active on the national scale or in big cities. These ‘primaries’ were an important tool to promote people that would otherwise have been left unknown to the public ^* .

However, despite the higher quantitative parameters describing citizen engagement in philanthropy, the quality of such engagement leaves much room for improvement. Russians would still rather render targeted aid without recourse to specialist organisations, for they still have little awareness of organised charity formats.

A charitable foundation is the very last resort for people to turn to in case of acute need. At the same time, many people just do not know that they can turn to a charitable foundation ^* .

Research shows that the most serious challenges of the charity sector in Russia are the following:

• Russians engaging in charities have poor trust in charities overall.

A survey by the Dobro.Mail.ru portal on trust in charities shows that half of those who help beggars and those who ask for donations on streets with money do not believe them to be really that needy. Forty-three per cent have doubts about it, and only 6% of all respondents have absolute certainty about the honesty of street beggars and those who ask for donations. The share of vigilant people among those who prefer donating through foundations is greater: 63% do not trust people asking donations and beggars on streets. Still, as the survey demonstrates, Russians continue giving away despite the lack of trust ^* .

According to the Centre for Civil Society and Non-profit Sector Studies of the National Research University of the HSE, overall trust in charitable organisations sector started to grow in 2013. As of today, 59% of Russians are inclined to trust charities, and 11% of the respondents agree that they fully trust them. However, only 8% of the respondents think that charities seek no profit ^* .

• Even that Russians now donate more, they still know very little about charitable foundations ^*

According to VCIOM (the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre), 70% of respondents do not know any or cannot recall any single charitable organisation, and an overwhelming majority of Russians do not understand what “fundraising” means (92% have never heard it, 5% are only vaguely aware of it but cannot give a definition) ^* . This is why media coverage of charitable organisations and a wider engagement of mass media in creating awareness of the charity movement are needed. These topics were in the top lines of the agenda of the Mass Media vs. Philanthropy round table discussion held by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation in Saint Petersburg ^* .

• People tend to think that support of philanthropy is the task for major businesses. There are still stereotypes in respect of charitable organisations, philanthropists, and charitable activities.

In 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation arranged a series of workshops and round table discussions to promote philanthropy and expand the number of its participants through engaging artists, sportsmen, and members of other publicly recognised groups in charities. This move was to demonstrate that philanthropy is not a privilege for the rich only. Philanthropy is an opportunity for anyone to help someone else.

Philanthropy is broader than donations. Philanthropy is about blood donors and volunteers who help sick children at hospitals, renovate homes for the elderly, pool money to pay hospital nurses, or arrange transportation to any place of expensive medical drugs whenever there is someone who needs them there ^* .

• Doing charity in Russia has its peculiarities. For example, people are not always ready to help certain social groups.

When asked by the Public Opinion Foundation “Who are you ready to help first?”, half of the respondents responded that the age does not matter, 32% of them said they are ready to help children, while 12% were ready to help the elderly. Only two persons out of 533 respondents expressed readiness to help adults (which, statistically, corresponds to 0%). Children get help more frequently, and people are a lot more ready to help them ^* . Russians are more willing to support an environmental project than to send money to a severely ill adult person.

In this context, it is necessary to create a favourable environment for palliative care and, most importantly, to procure sufficient financial support from the government to those social groups who need it the most.

Russians are ready to donate more if they understand how their money is going to be used. They also donate when they are personally engaged with the object of their donation or the relevant topic. This is why NPOs need to involve more people in their work so that they understand the essence and the magnitude of problems in NPOs’ focus ^* .

Volunteering

The year 2017 was a breakthrough one for volunteering because volunteering was recognised at government level as the key driver for civil consolidation.

Member of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Youth Affairs, Development of Volunteer Movement and Patriotic Upbringing

In this country, there are many people that care. And with every passing year, their number is increasing. Their desire to help, to be useful for the society, to change the world around us, beginning from the landing of the staircase in your apartment block or the yard, this is what brings millions of Russians together. Our country is in our hands and if we want change, each of us can do their bit. In 2017, 18% of the Russians have been taking part in volunteer activities. Helping children and senior citizens, taking care of the environment, organizing events, working in hospitals. People from absolutely different age groups, income groups and educational backgrounds have been participating in such a form of citizen activity. Acquiring experience, making friends, solving problems and just becoming happier. During this past year, a great deal has been done: the Civic Chamber has elaborated an Action Plan for development of the volunteer movement and a dedicated draft legislation. Many departments have activated industry specific support mechanisms.

The Coordination Council has been created at the Chamber which includes leaders of the country's volunteer movements, experts. One single portal web site has been launched "Russia's Volunteers". But still there are obstacles interfering with the process which is lack of trust between the authorities and activists, often it is lack of working conditions, changing rules of the game, risk of becoming a bureaucratic exercise. Our task, going forward, is to provide the most favourable conditions for millions of volunteers to work, to raise prestige, culture of volunteerism as a natural living standard for each Russian.

During his annual 2016 Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, President Putin paid particular tribute to the invaluable contribution of volunteers to creating in Russia of an atmosphere of common cause. He urged to remove all the hurdles for the development of this socially beneficial activity. Alongside other civil society institutions, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has become an active participant of this effort.

According to the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector of NRU HSE, 66% of organisations recoursed to volunteers in 2017, and 42% of Russians engaged in some form of volunteering and/or pro bono activities (mostly territory cleaning and litter picking in urban areas, with more than a half of all respondents participating in this type of activities), or social work (36%) over the past 12 months ^* .

The labour input per one Russian volunteer is estimated as 42.7 man-hours per month. If Russian volunteers got paid for their effort at the average rate of NPO hired staff, the value of volunteer labour resources in the non-profit sector would amount to RUB 16.4 annually ^* .

According to the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), the share of volunteers among younger population grew 27% in 2017 . In 2016, Russia had 4,168,228 volunteers, and in 2017 their number reached 5,283,778 ^* . This corresponds to about 3% of the overall population on a national scale ^* .

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However, in Russia, social volunteering is not limited to younger people only. Sociologists note a positive trend towards greater engagement in volunteering of the elderly. Thus, a third of all respondents above 56 years old are engaged in social practices, as well as one fourth of respondents aged above 64, and every tenth respondent aging between 72 and 80 ^* .

However, according to a study by the Russian Public Opinion Research Foundation, the share of volunteers was 5% in 2017 ^* vs. 3% in 2012-2015 ^* . For comparison, according to the European Commission statistics, about 22-23% of the European Union residents engage in volunteering on average ^* . At the same time, about 63 million people became volunteers in the USA in 2014 and contributed about 7.9 billion hours or more than USD 184 billion in value terms. The economic potential of volunteering in Canada exceeds economic potential in the agricultural, automotive, and machine building sectors ^* .

Despite the available reserves and a great potential for volunteering to develop in our country, volunteering has not yet won a massive spread in Russia.

Moreover, no statistical recording of volunteering in Russia is in place, with virtually all data coming from private surveys and studies. In addition, some respondents do not view their work as volunteering. The low percentage of volunteers can also be explained by the fact that many people engage in ad hoc activities without any direct involvement in specific projects. According to the Public Opinion Research Foundation, the number of the so-called ‘local activists’ that render help in their respective local communities is 30% ^* .

The methodology used by the Rosstat for accounting the volunteers is imperfect, for ,in reality, it takes into account the volunteers engaging with SO NPOs only, thus underestimating the overall real number.

The imperfection of ways used to collect official statistics on volunteering gives rise to one more problem. Any volunteering movement can report any number of volunteers, as it cannot be verified. There is a need for a diligent background and fact checking on volunteering organisations. This would create additional barriers for unscrupulous practices and abuse.

Volunteering has been developing very unevenly over the past years. There is an explosive growth of “event volunteering”, i.e. volunteer participation in major sporting events like the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, the 19 ^th World Festival of Youth and Students, the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 etc.

At the same time, the level of volunteering development in the social and medical services spheres is still comparatively low.

The key problem is that managers of hospitals, homes for the elderly and other social institutions are unwilling to admit volunteers in. This happens because of many matters, including work safety and working hours, remain unregulated. Another frequent reason is that these facilities do not want to let strangers within the area of their responsibility.

The rules for admitting volunteers to medical and social institutions keep changing all the time. There are no common rules that would make access universal. Yet, such rules are necessary, as such institutions have their own specifics, and a person without the necessary training or a health record may do harm instead of good. The objective is to create a clear list of more or less fixed requirements for those volunteers who wish to support medical and social institutions.

The evolution of medical volunteering in Russia is driven by the Medical Volunteers All-Russian Public Movement. The movement is committed to the shaping of the volunteering movement infrastructure at medical education establishments in over 60 regions of Russia. Currently, the movement unites 10 thousand professional volunteers who render assistance to paramedics at more than 200 medical organisations across Russia.

An important point in the history of medical volunteering was the establishment of the first specialised Federal Healthcare Volunteering Support Centre. The objective of this centre is to develop a general approach to organising volunteering in healthcare. ^*

One of the key issues that experts and activists discuss in connection with the development of volunteering is whether volunteering needs financial or non-financial incentives .

In 2017, volunteers had a chance to speak up on the matter, as the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, together with VCIOM (the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre), conducted a survey to identify measures of support that volunteers could choose as relevant. The optional answer in the survey covered travel benefits, discounted mobile communication fees, extra days off, insurance, and free cinema tickets ^* .

According to the research, more than 90% of volunteers in Russia are ready to work for free, but if incentives were there, they’d stimulate people to give more time to devotion ^* .

Even that letters of gratitude and souvenirs are still the most widely spread incentives, in the opinion of 58% of all respondents volunteers are more interested in other incentives, e.g. having their leisure arranged, attending round tables with interesting people, mastering of new skills, education opportunities, benefits, and support in getting additional education.

Many experts believe that volunteering is intrinsically gratis and freewill and that it should not be driven by any kind of incentives other than moral encouragement ^* .

On the other hand, volunteering is to a certain degree encouraged by the fact that volunteering may be a tool to promote self-development, socialisation, and to strengthen cooperation between countries.

There should be no doubt about the substance of volunteering. The very status of a volunteer should be an incentive. It could give volunteers preference when entering universities or building their careers. Russian volunteering needs broader mass media coverage and promotion. Volunteering is increasingly becoming a form of self-fulfilment. However, there are still some stereotypes associated with the idea of free labour. Some people just do not understand why they should do something if they are not paid for it.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation suggests introducing a national award for individual contribution to the development of volunteering as a potential incentive option. This could be an award that would be similar to the one approved last year, i.e. the Russian Federation award for outstanding achievements in philanthropy. The award could be linked to the results of the annual Russian Volunteer national competition by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) and the Federal State Institution Rospatriotcentre. Similar practice already exists in the regions. For example, at the initiative of the Civic Chamber of Lipetsk Region, on 25 November 2010, the regional council of deputies instituted the “Lipetsk Region Volunteer” decoration. From 2010 to 2017, this decoration was awarded to 26 volunteers from Lipetsk Region ^* .

Volunteers should not be perceived by administrations and corporate management as a free workforce that has no rights and can be thus seconded to any event whether they want it or not. This perception completely discredits the idea and the value of volunteering for those who are forced to volunteering by administrative pressure. It is necessary to make sure that volunteering is not a general obligation for everyone in order not to devaluate the status of volunteers in the society.

Statutory regulation of volunteering is another important issue to address.

The draft law “On Volunteering” submitted to the State Duma back in 2013 was amended in 2017. The new draft law provides for amendments to current legislation, in particular, to the Federal Law “On Charity and Charitable Organisations” (Law No. 135-FZ of 11 August 1995).

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation believes that amending the current Law is a better solution as compared to adopting a standalone one, as the new Law will target specific tasks in specific areas. One needs to keep in mind however that formalism and red tape are to be avoided when dealing with volunteering.

The draft law suggests making equal the different versions of the term “volunteering” in the Russian language (“ dobrovolchestvo ” and “ volonterstvo ”). Besides, it introduces the notion of volunteer work organisers, volunteer organisations, and volunteering support centres. The latter may be either non-profit or governmental. Their purpose is to provide “resource, outreach, information, and advisory” assistance to volunteers and volunteer work organisers. The draft law also formalises volunteer rights and responsibilities, including the right to life insurance and medical aid. The law specifically points out the volunteer right to get “public recognition and encouragement” ^* .

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation believes that the new law on volunteering if adopted, will make interaction with officials easier for volunteer organisations. What is most important, the amendments will formalise the right of authorities to support volunteer movements. There is no statutory provision like that now, and officials often have no statutory grounds to help the volunteers that turn to them.

Member of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Youth Affairs, Development of Volunteer Movement and Patriotic Upbringing

During the last 3 years, from local and one off beginnings, volunteerism has turned into a dynamic social trend spanning the whole country. Involved in the volunteer activities are all the age groups, however young people are the most numerous and fast growing walk of life among volunteers. According to the data of the Russian Youth Agency, percentage of volunteers among the younger generation in 2017 has increased by 27%. In terms of its nature, volunteerism constitutes a natural manifestation of kindness and people's aspiration to make our world better. This is precisely why, given that there are no barriers or restrictions as well as given the support on the part of the authorities, volunteers can make a real difference in dealing with quite various social problems, while meeting the societal need for justice. Besides, volunteer activities are a contemporary form of professional orientation. Having chosen his or her preferred activity, a volunteer can hone his or her skills and competencies by gaining professional experience. Based on the results of the first phase of monitoring the sphere of youth policy which was carried out by our ad hoc commission, we have established that the MAIN driver causing young people to participate in various events is the opportunity of manifesting themselves. Today, volunteerism does provide such opportunities and this is exactly why this movement is so popular. Yes, indeed, the government and society are today pooling efforts to do away with the barriers which hinder development of volunteerism, to offer non-material incentives, etc. However, in this area, you need to strike a fine balance to make sure that you don't overdo it either way and avoid making volunteer movement over-organized and formalistic. Since the main driving force for a volunteer is their sincere desire to help, coming from the bottom of their hearts.

Experts opine that the law needs to regulate not only the work and responsibilities of volunteers but the work and responsibilities of local officials and heads of federal ministries in respect of volunteers ^* .

Key steps to develop volunteering in 2017:

• Creation of an Action Plan for the “Facilitation to the Development of Volunteering in the Russian Federation”.

In his Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on 1 December 2016, President Vladimir Putin tasked it to design a volunteering development action plan. The President said that “all barriers to the development of volunteering need to be removed” and urged the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, together with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), to prepare a volunteering movement development action plan. The Cabinet was to approve the plan and ensure its proper implementation ^* .

During the preparation of the Action Plan over 300 best practices of governmental support to volunteering were collected from all over Russia.

The preparation and subsequent implementation of the Action Plan called for the adoption of the Volunteering Support Standard for Russian regions. This Standard outlines common ways for overcoming the obstacles to the development of volunteering.

• Creation of a Concept for Volunteering Development in the Russian Federation until 2025

The Concept outlines the key volunteering development areas until 2025 and provides for consistent volunteer initiatives support measures. The document offers the broadest possible coverage of volunteering development prospects across different professional and social groups and age categories. It covers the most diverse volunteering initiatives, including corporate volunteering as part of corporate social responsibility programmes.

• Establishment of interactive platforms and online resources to consolidate the volunteering movement

The launch of the Volunteers of Russia ^* federal online resource has been an important step.

The resource brings civic activists, volunteer centres, non-profit and commercial organisations, state institutions and everyone else involved in the volunteer movement together on one website. Anyone can create his or her profile as a volunteer. By accessing the profile, organisations can find volunteers for specific initiatives or projects. To engage volunteers, non-profit organisations can publish calls for help and up-to-date information on their work. As of the end of 2017, the system had 28,850 volunteers and 1,396 organisations registered, and 636 successfully completed events.

The volunteering movement can be valuable for safeguarding the nation’s traditional values. Along with the existing projects that have proven successful (Victory Volunteers etc.), the format of quests for the young has proven to be efficient. These include the Marathon of Good Deeds, which basically is a competition for the title of the kindest town and the kindest school in Russia. In 2017, over 100 thousand Russians from 1,600 localities took part in more than 50 thousand events intended to create a new attitude to the environment, creative labour etc.

• Development of an infrastructure for the volunteer movement

Every year, the volunteer movement in Russia becomes progressively more structured. Schools often have children’s volunteer troops which operate with the support of the Russian Schoolchildren’s Movement. There is a developing network of volunteer centres with secondary vocational and higher educational establishments. These centres offer students opportunities for social and professional self-realisation. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the National Healthcare Development Foundation supported the creation of a network of Blood Donation Resource Centres. The network provides information, methodological and advisory support to the blood donor movement. The functional scope of these centres is to expand, with plans to hold cross-regional events pursuant to the needs of the Blood Service.

Despite the growing popularity of corporate volunteering in the Russian business community, there are difficulties to be faced. These include, first of all, the lack of volunteering support infrastructure in Russian regions, poor engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises (because they have limited management resources capable of developing and implementing relevant corporate programmes), and the lack of interaction and coordination across entities engaging in the development of volunteering at the regional level. In five years’ time, pro bono should become the core development stream in the corporate sector. The corporate sector will increasingly render professional services and assistance to charities, public and other non-profit organisation without a consideration. This will be done with the support of the National Council for Corporate Volunteering (NCCV). The council summarises best practices in corporate volunteering and shares them relevant stakeholders.

Major NPOs and relevant governmental and municipal institutions transform into resource centres for volunteering support in regions of Russia. They render educational, organisational, advisory and other support to volunteer alliances. Within the coming three years, the Volunteer Centres Association plans to set up resource centres in every region of Russia ^* .

Non-profit Organisations in the Social Services Market

A direct path towards upgrading the role of the third sector in the economy is to give NPOs equal rights and engage them in the developing sectors of the economy where the main social problems sit. These include healthcare, education, culture, sport, tourism, and social services.

Chairperson of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Development of Non- Profit Sector and Support of Socially Oriented Non-Profit Organisations

The main avenue to be followed in order to enhance the role of the non-profit sector in the country's economy as well as its sustainability is for the non-profit organisations to enter the social services market. During the last few years, a great deal has been done to ensure that this happens. And this was not done for nothing. As, today, there are a great many non-profit organisations which provide our citizens with highly sought-after and high quality services in quite diverse sectors of the social sphere. Ranging from social protection for the population, education, public heath, culture, sports, tourism and other areas. However, unfortunately, despite a large number of laws and normative acts which have been adopted, entry of non-profit organisations into this market has not been plain sailing. Admittedly, expecting this to happen overnight would probably be a stretch of imagination. However, removing the hurdles and barriers which we run into is also a necessity. Such barriers being, first of all, the low rates which the non-profit organisations offer for their services. Apart from that, this is the problem of getting hold of the funds for the services that they have provided. As today they get them only as compensation for the work already done. In this case, you need to come by this money from somewhere initially in order to provide such services whereas today non-profit organisations have no access to low interest credit facilities. Though, for example, small business does enjoy such opportunities. Therefore, we propose that non-profit organisations and small business should be equal. At least, in this particular respect. Besides, there has appeared a new status for non-profit organisations, which is performer of socially useful services. And today, more than 40 organisations have already obtained this status. But what they have had to go through in order to make this happen is another story. There are too many difficulties and barriers in obtaining this status. For the non-profit organisations, today, it does not involve any definitive insurance or confidence that they will be getting any additional opportunities or advantages. This is just a sign of quality. But even getting such a sign of quality is an uphill job. This is an area where one will have to grapple with many barriers to be cleared, administrative barriers, to liaison with authorities who are not overly willing to issue non-profit organisations an opinion of the quality of the services rendered by them. And one more thing, it is informing citizens of what services the non-profit organisations provide and in what way such services can be of use to them. Many of our citizens are just unaware of it. For them to become informed, it is very important to develop, for example, such a tool as social advertising. And for that purpose, the Civic Chamber of Russia has set up the Coordination Council on social advertising and social communications, which would arrange for interaction between non-profit organisations and mass media and would be instrumental in making the services relating to placement of social advertising more available to non-profit organisations and ensuring that the law on social advertising is complied with.

Third sector organisations are capable of delivering high quality social services in the targeted aid format to certain groups. They help the disabled and the elderly, work on inclusivity initiatives in education and help to those who are in need.

Encouragement of NPOs to enter the social services sphere boosts competition and improves the overall quality of social services. Today, almost nowhere in the world social issues are handled by governments and with funding from state budgets only.

There are countries where social services are rendered mostly by non-profit organisations. It took these countries decades to come to this arrangement. Russia does have truly unique methods and approaches of its own. What is important is that the NPOs engaging in social services offer a number of advantages, including flexibility and adaptability, and they widely engage employees in the delivery of social services.

Today, many NPOs deliver social services that are in high demand and address wide population groups. However, other than the immediate recipients of these services, the general public is poorly aware of what these organisations can in effect do. Russia has a long-standing tradition of governmental paternalism in social services. Whenever the government speaks of its intention to quit the social services, this gives rise to general public irritation and misunderstanding, and the state is immediately perceived as going back on its social obligations.

The government has set a course for active involvement of NPOs in social services, with their effort to be covered from the state budget. Institutionalisation of socially oriented NPOs as social service providers and non-profit sector entities started on 1 January 2015, after the enactment of Federal Law of 28 December 2013, No. 442-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Social Services for Citizens in the Russian Federation”. The law opened up opportunities for socially oriented NPOs and other non-profit organisations to participate in the delivery of social services along with state-funded institutions.

In May 2016, after a broad discussion with the relevant community, the Government of the Russian Federation approved a Set of Measures for 2016-2020 to Ensure Staged Access for Socially Oriented Non-profit Organisations to Budgetary Funds.

And, finally, the Law on the NPOs that engage in the provision of public services came into effect on 1 January 2017. The key message of the law is that NPOs that deliver social services of a due quality are entitled to special government support and access to the budget. Pursuant to the assignment of the President of the Russian Federation, a complete regulatory framework is already in place, and a register of SO NPOs that provide social services socially is about to appear.

These major undertakings have transformed the non-profit sector. In early 2016, the number of NPOs providing social services was less than 400. However, in early 2017 registers recorded 1,047 nongovernmental organisations, including 705 non-profit ones ^* . According to the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the total of funds transferred from the budget to service-oriented NPOs in 2016 exceeded RUB 10 billion, including RUB 4 billion in education, RUB 3.2 billion in fitness and sport, and RUB 2 billion in culture ^* .

This has laid a foundation for this sector to develop intensively in a number of regions. Yet, in most regions, the Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Social Services for Citizens in the Russian Federation” (Law No. 442-FZ of 28 December 2013) is still not fully operable. In some regions, registers of social service providers contain only just a few NPOs (e.g. in Moscow), while in other regions budget-funded organisations deregister as such and register anew as socially oriented NPOs. This emasculates the very idea of the law. One might ask, why this mummery around same providers just changing their form of legal form.

Moreover, non-profit organisations are faced with real challenges when they have to render services of a certain quality on a continuous basis. They are largely unable to guarantee compliance with applicable construction, sanitary, or fire safety rules. There is absolutely no clarity as far as the size of compensation that NPOs are to be paid in exchange for their services. Standard rates are normally not even close to the market value of such services. There is also a lot of uncertainty about public purchasing of social services through competitive tenders.

According to the Set of Measures for 2016-2020 to Ensure Staged Access for Socially Oriented Non-profit Organisations to Budgetary Funds approved by the Deputy Chairman of the RF Government on 23 May 2016 (No. 3468p-P44), all constituents of the Russian Federation are to adopt comprehensive regional plans that will provide for the access of socially oriented NPOs to the delivery of social services. There measures have so far been mostly perfunctory. Some of the coordination boards have never met, and those who failed to update relevant socially oriented NPOs on the work they do. Regional agencies appointed as key operators of coordination boards do not have the power to coordinate across other agencies. But, most importantly, in most cases, regions do not understand why they should address these tasks and they lack the comprehensive vision of the non-governmental sector development policy.

As of the end of November 2017, the register of socially useful service providers included only 45 NPOs. There is still no clarity about the competitive advantages that the new status gives these organisations. According to federal legislation, they have two years of guaranteed material and financial support. In practice, no support mechanisms are there. We must admit that the Law on socially oriented NPOs that engage in the provision of socially useful services is not yet in operation.

Moreover, getting the official status of a socially useful service provider is a very time-consuming exercise. In 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and relevant community representatives succeeded in getting the legislation refined. From now on, the quality of socially oriented NPOs’ services can be validated and assured by regional executive authorities along with the federal ones. This will certainly ease the barriers for inclusion on the register. The sector will benefit from the introduction of an electronic document management system to allow for electronic submission of the necessary documents like it is done in the case of Presidential grants where everything is automated, user-friendly and with online status updates.

Another area of focus is the involvement of NPOs in rendering services at municipal levels. So far, municipal government leaders neither have an understanding why engage NPOs as municipal service providers nor a motivation, other than by top-down orders, to do this. And although local NPOs already demonstrate their readiness to deliver social services (i.e. social amenities, sports, culture, and education), so far no local mechanisms for such involvement have been developed.

In order to complete all the tasks at hand, there is a need for methodological guidance on the part of competent agencies. It is necessary to develop a template of a social services contract that will take into account the specifics and capabilities of NPOs. All targeted federal and government programmes that address public interests must envisage participation of NPOs with their effort to be funded from relevant budgets.

Public Control

Public control is a key communication channel between the society and the authorities.

ОП РФ

Chairman of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Housing and Communal Facilities, Construction and Roads

I would like to highlight an absolutely new approach to the Report. The Report gives very marginal coverage to the problems of housing and communal facilities, construction and roads. It is really a pity. Today, the key issue of people’s quality of life seems to be the housing and communal facilities. From my perspective, this should be given more prominence.

On the subject of the Commission’s performance results, we should say that we have made an enormous number of site visits into the regions, we have held a huge number of hearings and meetings. I would mention that we do have positive things to report where we have taken positive decisions on gasification, water supplies, construction of communal facilities and construction of housing to replace housing in emergency condition, as well as decisions on shared participation, mortgage, shared ownership participants who have been cheated. Unfortunately, there are negative stories where we have failed to achieve solution.

Therefore, 2018 is bringing hopes and promise of better things. I deem it to be important that we have succeeded in obtaining from President Putin the decision to extend the Fund for Reforming the Housing and Communal Facilities Sector, that we have been successful in obtaining RUB 10 billion worth of financing for 2018 from the Federal Budget, that the governors spoke very positively of our Commission’s and the whole Chamber’s steps relating to the problems which we have been raising. I do hope that next year we will be in a position to rehome on the order of 34 thousand families in new apartments, to demolish 520 thousand sq. m of emergency housing. I do hope that there will be a new approach put in place to environment conservation facilities, construction of water treatment facilities.

So far as proving grounds are concerned, the government’s concept that testing grounds constitute a solution is, in my opinion, incorrect. I hope that the issue of recycling and disposing solid communal wastes will start to be addressed. From my point of view, it is critical for us, next year, to adhere to a more stringent and proper approach to charges and rates, to standard quotas, to setting norms. We are in for a challenging year given extensive budget sequestration. But still there is hope. The Commission will continue to work hard, we have scheduled on the order of 40 field visits to different regions of Russia.

Current understanding of public control rests on two conceptual approaches. The first one is that public control is a fixed legal concept, and only a limited list of organisations, namely the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, civic chambers (councils) in municipalities, public councils of federal executive authorities, and public councils of legislative (representative) and executive authorities in Russian Federation constituents, are deemed public control entities according to Article 9 of Federal Law of 21 July 2014 No. 212-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Public Control in the Russian Federation”.

The second approach treats public control as oversight efforts of citizens and public organisations aiming to maintain public order and monitor compliance with current laws.

In fact, the two approaches are not in conflict. Public control entities listed in the Law do not act on their own behalf, they are representatives of citizens and of those organisations that have delegated them to public control entities.

The essentially game-changing Federal Law of 21 July 2014, No. 212-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Public Control in the Russian Federation” was enacted, and so were regional laws on public control in 65 regions. There is however very little positive experience in applying this legislation yet.

Key public control efforts most often take place at the level of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and regional and municipal civic chambers. Such efforts include, for example, monitoring of the Unified National Exam process, availability and quality of high tech medical aid and the situation at orphanages and residential care facilities, regulation of relations in the animal rights protection, environmental protection, education, public utilities and all other spheres of community life.

Another area in which the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is active as a public control entity is the handling of citizen petitions. In 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation received 20,264 petitions from citizens^*. Most of them concern the work of law-enforcement bodies, issues in the security, system of state and social domain, and the country’s socio-political and economic development. The key issues raised in these petitions include public utility tariffs, building renovations, and environmental protection. The petitions are mostly filed through the website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, there are also ‘hot lines’ set up on the acutest issues.

One of the first public control initiatives of the new Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation was the creation of a dedicated hotline on the enrolment of students with disabilities to academic institutions and universities ^* . It is important to note that almost 85% of hotline callers eventually became university students ^* . Consistent efforts supported by the Russian Federation President’s Commission for the Affairs of the Disabled and the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science resulted in initiative amendments to federal laws intended to simplify university admission procedures for applicants with disabilities ^* .

The hotline of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on disability examinations is among the most popular hotlines according to the number of callers ^* . A number of locally made decisions on assignment of disability categories have been reconsidered, and people have been either assigned a disability category or upgraded the one they already had. Most importantly, this initiative has been taken up by regional civic chambers. For example, members of the Regional Civic Chamber and the Civic Chamber of Orsk in Orenburg Region have set up a hotline on issues with the local disability examination board and ran a survey of local residents on the matter ^* .

First Deputy Chairperson of the Commission of the Civic Chamber on Housing and Communal Facilities Sector, Construction and Roads

For me, in the Report by the Civic Chamber, the most important section appears to be the section devoted to development of public control. And definitely, it warms my heart a great deal that this document speaks so highly of public control development in the sphere of housing and communal facilities. Such is the end result; this, definitely, a direct result of the work done by the Civic Chamber of the previous convocations and the current convocation as well. For a few years, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has been supporting regional non-profit organisations which have been operating in the sphere of protecting the rights of those who use the housing and communal facilities, in the sphere of housing education, has been providing methodological support, by uniting them into one single network in accordance with the assignments given by the President in Decree No. 600. And, of course, during this past year, the Civic Chamber of the current convocation, of already the new convocation, has given such a highly principled assessment of the whole range of government programmes, their implementation, including development of the communal infrastructure and the situation in the sphere of apartment building management. And, undoubtedly, the chamber has already announced that it is defending and will be defending the owners' rights to common property in the buildings, the rights to receive high quality housing services. On this score, we have conducted a whole number of actions. And this, without doubt, has also told on the overall situation in the country.

The most advanced public control system currently exists in the housing and utilities sector, which covers 20% of the national economy, is the second largest cost item for every individual and is ranked 1 ^st (along with public healthcare) by the number of complaints. It is not by chance that most of the appeals to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation are about the assessment of utility payments and the quality of utilities, apartment buildings management, implementation of refurbishment programs, and exercising housing rights, including relocation from the dilapidated housing.Efforts of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation contributed to the recent establishment of a multistage public control system in the housing and utilities sector. The system includes regional and local civic chambers and public councils and engages around 300 relevant non-profit organisations in its work. Approximately 3,000 activists from 1,349 municipalities participate in the municipal public control network.

Perm and Khabarovsk Territories and Chelyabinsk and Tyumen Regions have positive and proven public control practices. For example, Chelyabinsk Region now has its first public housing inspectors. They have been trained at the State Housing Inspectorate of Chelyabinsk Region, and most of them are chairpersons of homeowners’ associations or apartment buildings.

Public control is however not equally well-developed in respect of housing rights. This primarily pertains to protection of the ‘cheated housing equity holders’. When enacting the Federal Law “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Participation in Shared-Equity Construction of Apartment Buildings”, the State Duma did not take into account the suggestions of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation regarding special procedures for public control over the Shared-Equity Construction Indemnification Fund and expenses associated with its functions and its powers.

Another serious problem is that NPO efforts aimed at promoting housing law awareness and protection of utility services consumer rights are not on the list of priority focus areas in socially useful services set forth in Decree No. 398 of 8 August 2016 from the RF President. This is an obstacle to registering NPOs as vendors of socially useful services. Besides, this often shuts the door on them as far as regional grants to support socially oriented NPOs.

As part of public control efforts, members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation visited over 40 cities and towns in 2017. They met citizens, held round tables, inspected apartment buildings refurbishment projects, utilities infrastructure condition, winter readiness, looked into the progress of relocation from the dilapidated housing, waste management and other burning problems.

What makes the situation with public control in housing and utilities more difficult is the numerous ‘invisible’ infrastructure facilities in Russia. For example, one out of five roads in Russia is not maintained by anybody or properly registered. Gas distribution pipelines are in a graver situation, with a half of them unregistered. Depending upon the region, 30% to 70% signposts used for cadastral valuation and boundary surveys have no owners either. As a result, there is nobody to repair and renovate such ‘invisible’ infrastructure.

This situation is a result of the recent municipal reform. Roads used to be the responsibility of settlement-level municipal authorities. Yet currently, pursuant to Federal Law of 6 October 2003, No. 131-FZ “On the General Principles of the Local Governments Organization in the Russian Federation”, the roads are the responsibility of district or urban settlement authorities. That transfer of property across public authority levels caused the current situation with part of the roads not controlled by any authorities. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation believes it necessary to ensure oversight in this field so that infrastructure facilities would be in a proper condition to make life comfortable ^* .

Chair of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Environment Control

The year 2017 was declared by the President of the Russian Federation to be the year of environment and has been marked by an upsurge of civil activity and a focus on environment. According to the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre, practically 60% of Russian citizens are showing interest in environment related issues. The citizens of Russia enjoy the constitutional rights to objective information about the status of environment. For the purpose of ensuring that these rights can be exercised, we are planning to elevate the work with mass media, non-profit organisations and experts to a qualitatively new level. With this goal in view, we are opening up the communication platform “Environmental Press Centre”, which is to publicly debate a broad spectrum of environmental issues. This would allow occurrence of socio-environmental conflicts to be avoided in the process of all round acquisition of territories. The society has established a quest of reliable information in the area of handling wastes; people are interested to know where their garbage is going. For that purpose, we have designed a methodology of public control using technical devices and have staged a test by installing GPS-trackers in the garbage bins in Moscow. The action has enabled end points of illegal wastes disposal to be determined.

The Commission also provides expert support in developing the wastes handling industry. A project has been embarked upon to analyze the infrastructure and technological solutions for wastes recycling. I shall underline that, on 2 December, Vladimir Putin tasked the Civic Chamber of Russia to analyse efficiency of the measures aimed at ensuring that the wastes are recycled as well as with submitting proposals on how to make sure that the opinion of the citizens of Russia are taken into account when facilities are constructed for use for wastes recycling. According to the analysis made by the commission of whether the assignments issued by the President of Russia in the area of environment control have been carried out, only approximately 34% of such assignments have been completed. In order to preclude environmental speculation and social contradictions from occurring, the commission makes a comprehensive assessment of the performance of more than two thousand non-profit organisations in the field of environment control. Even at this stage, one can say that only a quarter of them have been active.

The keynote theme for the year 2018 will be resource conservation and focus on natural resources as the value which should be sparingly utilized. During the next year, the Commission is planning on concerning itself with the problems of water utilisation and conservation of forest resources in Russia. We have now taken under special control the environmental situation related to the quality of medicinal waters in the city of Caucasian Mineral Water; we are planning on further pursuing this matter together with the regional chamber of the Stavropol Territory and the public councils of the specialist ministries and agencies. It is only by working together that we would manage to save environment for future generations!

Deputy Chairman of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Development of Economy, Entrepreneurship, Services Sector and Consumer Market

Working on the Commission on Economy, myself and my colleagues have focused on those economic problems which are of utmost social sensitivity. These are such issues as the quality and affordability of goods, creation of jobs, improving the quality of government services, development of socially significant industries: sporting goods, goods for children, folk crafts, development of social entrepreneurship. These issues have a focus on the regions, many of these issues have been put for discussion before our colleagues from the regional economic commissions. Therefore, in this work, we proceed from the regional agendas and when bills are evaluated by experts we strive to engage as many regional experts as possible.

No doubt, we have got huge plans for 2018 which, by the way, has been declared to be the year of volunteers. Generally speaking, volunteerism has been developing at a neck breaking speed in this country; a separate large section in the report to the Chamber on the status of the civil society is dedicated to this activity. It is important that this trend be supported by involving in it a vast number of people and social groups. That is why one of the priority projects of the economic commission will be the "Business Volunteer" Project aimed at involving entrepreneurs in resolution of social issues.

Unemployment and level of wages rank among the most burning issues for the general public. Therefore, me and my colleagues have been working to institute a special prize of the Civic Chamber, which would be awarded to companies for accomplishments in the area of creating new jobs and improving labour productivity.

People continue to be concerned about the quality and affordability of goods, that is why we have been scheduling, together with experts, producers and consumers, our colleagues from related commissions, a number of thematic events dedicated to certain groups of goods and services. For example, the first to be discussed will be such question as: "how can we make sure that high quality. affordable and state-of-the-art medicines are produced in Russia?". We shall also continue discussing with the Government the possibility of introducing "food certificates" as dedicated aid to be provided to certain groups of the population.

Of course, we will talking about the new opportunities which open up for people to assert themselves with "digital economy" gaining more and more ground. On this subject matter, we have held a field meeting of the Commission in Yaroslavl and we are planning similar functions in other regions.

Another area that requires more rigorous public control is environmental protection. There are concerns about the construction of the so-called landfill sites. These facilities are primarily designed to isolate and remove solid domestic waste, but in the end, they cause environmental pollution instead. Residents of Troitsk Administrative District (which is part of New Moscow) contacted the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation because they were extremely concerned about the construction of the Malinki landfill site, – the largest one in the region and located near them ^* . The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation mediated the matter and turned to the office of Moscow Mayor asking to look into the situation and meet the locals. In the end, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced his intention to sign an order to mothball the Malinki landfill in New Moscow ^* .

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation also supported the project of tracking waste collection trucks and where the waste was eventually disposed of. Twenty-nine GLONASS trackers were installed in all districts of Moscow. They were placed in garbage containers in residential areas and in waste bins at medical institutions or construction sites. During the experiment, anyone could check where waste from any specific container went: to a legal waste disposal site, or to an unauthorised dump ^* .

Effective and efficient environmental public control means that citizens get timely and reliable information about the environment. In Instruction No. Pr-2436 of 2 December 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin recommended that the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation should assess the efficiency of solid domestic waste recycling and to make proposals that will ensure taking public opinion into account when building such waste management facilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin determined that changing the ideology of entrepreneurial activities oversight should be one of the key principles underlying the economic development strategy. This includes expanding the area of operation for self-regulated organisations as far as possible and handing part of the government functions over to them. This is especially relevant in the agricultural sector that receives significant governmental support funds which are, however, virtually not accessible for small agribusinesses.

Another area of public control jointly promoted by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the National Healthcare Development Fund is donation of blood and its components. A range of activities has already been completed in this area, including independent quality assessment of services offered by branches of the Blood Bank (the so-called Blood Services) from the viewpoint of their information openness and accessibility. This revealed the key issues in managing blood donors and helped to identify the leaders among Blood Services. A special “Quality Seal” prize has been instituted to incentivize the latter.

Drug provisions to people suffering from cancer or rare diseases ^* is another issue in focus.

Petitions filed with various authorities, including the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, are infinite: regional authorities fail to deliver on their commitment to provide sufficient amounts of requisite medical drugs, even despite court orders in some cases ^* .

To tackle this problem, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has initiated a series of round table discussions in the regions ^* aiming to align the positions of regional authorities and active parents and patients. Such efforts also involve patient associations (“Rare Diseases”, “Hunter’s Syndrome”, “Fragile People”, and many others) ^* . In equally close cooperation with the patient community, in 2017 the Civic Chamber held the second Russian Oncology Forum to address a broad range of issues that people face when they have heard this horrible diagnosis.

Another important area in public control is the control of conditions in the penitentiary system . Eighty-three public monitoring commissions (PMCs) ^* are currently operating in Russia. According to the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, there are currently over 500 thousand people in detention facilities. More than two thousand of them die every year ^* . Activists and human rights advocates now have more powers to control the situation of the individuals serving sentence in custody. The goal is to ensure that PMCs only include honest and competent individuals seeking no benefits from joining PMCs. Their sole purpose should be to help the state to deliver punishment in compliance with the law and to help the convicts to serve their sentences in decent conditions. The approved procedure of public reporting on the PMC activities serves this purpose ^* . This practice is especially important given the criminalization among the youth. Certain quite numerous groups of young people (aged from 18 to 30) are inclined to crime. According to some data, up to 40% of the total number of registered offences are committed by this category of citizens ^* .

In 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation re-established the work group for organizing public monitoring commissions and maintaining relations with them. Besides members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, it includes representatives of the President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, the Human Rights Ombudsman, public and religious organisations. Adding members to certain public monitoring commissions, which became necessary in the autumn of 2016 when part of PMCs was short of staff after the rotations, was one of the important issues to address. Seventy-five new members joined public monitoring commissions in 22 RF constituents in December 2017.

One of the main forms of public control is the public evaluation of draft statutory and legal enactments. The purpose is to align the socially important interests of citizens, public associations, government agencies, and local governments. Public evaluation as a mechanism aims to engage citizens in the law-making process. It enables quality improvement of new laws both from the legislative perspective and from the position of their practical efficiency and alignment with the needs and expectations of the civil society.

Since 2014, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has been developing the practice of ‘zero readings’ of draft laws. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ‘zero readings’ are a “real mechanism of direct democracy which we consistently develop and will continue to do so in the future” ^* .

In 2014-2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation completed 210 public evaluations of draft statutory and legal enactments, including 12 public evaluations in 2014, 64 in 2015, and 65 in 2016. In 2017 (as of 27 November 2016), the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held 69 public evaluations, including 60 in the ‘zero reading’ format.

In 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held public evaluations of a number of draft statutory and legal enactments aiming to improve regulation of the non-profit sector. As assigned by the Russian President in paragraph 5 of the Russian President’s List of Assignments of 01.01.2017 No. Pr–16, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held a number of ‘zero readings’ of draft statutory and legal enactments regulating qualification of SO NPOs as vendors of socially useful services ^* .

Draft Federal Law No. 274618-7 “On the Federal Budget for 2018 and the Planning Period of 2019 and 2020” was discussed in such zero readings. As a result, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federationconcluded that the proposed draft federal budget conflicted the Russian Federation President’s assignment given to the Government of the Russian Federation. The assignment was to “prepare a detailed action plan until 2025 to enable national economic growth at rates outpacing the global level with the first deliverables of the plan to become visible as soon as in 2019-2020 and, thus, to enhance Russia’s position in the global economy”. A number of provisions contained in the draft law call for major amendments.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held public hearings and evaluation of the draft Federal Law “On Changes to Article 19.28 of the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offences and Article 1 of the Federal Law “On Countering Corruption” (as far as introduction of a more stringent liability for corruption)” and of the draft Federal Law “On Changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (as far as introduction of a more stringent liability for corruption)”. These draft laws suggest a more extensive notion as far as the subject of corruption offences by including delivery of non-monetary services, vesting of non-proprietary rights, and other unfair preferences in its definition. The authors of the draft laws, however, failed to make a reference to the efficiency of the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in its running version as far as countering corruption. There is also no reference to the fact that some changes to criminal legislation are driven by the needs of law-enforcement and judiciary authorities, as new social phenomena emerge and call for the fine-tuning of relevant statutory regulations. These draft laws in their proposed versions found no support from the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.

Deputy Secretary of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation

Our head of state has said on many occasions that ‘Zero Readings’ of parliament bills is an actually workable tool of direct democracy. We want to make this tool effective, we want it to work at all the levels of governance. During 2017, the Civic Chamber stepped up its efforts aimed at conducting the ‘Zero Readings’. We reviewed and advanced our proposals regarding amendments to the legislation on non-profit organisations, discussed the status of the provider of publicly useful services. We debated with ministries and agencies the concept of social entrepreneurship. And the Civic Chamber's proposals are expected to be implemented at the level of a law in the near future. This year, under the Civic Chamber's consideration, there have been nearly 60 Federal law drafts. Among them, there are such bills desperately needed by the general public as for example, draft amendments relating to bona fide acquirers. We are constantly watching which initiatives are prepared for consideration by the State Duma, the Government of Russia. And we want the citizens of Russia to know about such initiatives. To make sure that they can have their say and tell everyone what they think of them as well as propose their comments, come up with a version that would be suitable to the entire society. The lawmakers are not always receptive to our amendments. But we try our best to bring the general public's position home to the Parliament.

Chairman of the Commission of the Civic Chamber on Public Control and Liaison with Public Councils

The Section devoted to public control is regarded by me as one of the most important and key sections of our Report, i.e. the Report of the Civic Chamber on the status of civic society. Today, public control is no longer something new, the law is in operation, the regional laws are in operation. The civic chambers are subject to public control just as the public councils. However, in the Report we have tried to lay emphasis on the problems which arise in the area of public control and the activities of the public councils, first and foremost. Certainly, we cannot help pointing out that the Civic Chamber in this case is the coordinator, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is even, as it were, the methodology centre for development of public control. I wish to make a special mention of the fact that the section “Public Control” is featured in the Report of each Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation’s subject region. Out of the most pressing problems, one has to mention lack of infrastructure for development of public control which applies to resources including informational, methodological, expert and, naturally, financial resources. And the second problem being, of course, that it is necessary to refine and update the Federal law, first of all, which regulates public control. And, maybe, it would be possible to initiate preparation of the template law on public control for the subject regions of the Russian Federation. At the moment, intensive establishment of public councils is underway under the auspices of the Federal executive authorities. One of the priorities is to make operation of these councils more effective. And in this respect, definitely, one cannot do without analyzing their performance, without interfacing with them, without initiating, say, for example, intensification of activities in a number of public control spheres. We have also sought to emphasize these most painful spots. Public control is featured in the activities of each Commission of the Civic Chamber, in the activities of each member of the Civic Chamber. And I do hope that such experience, these case studies and best practices as well as the problems which we have identified in the Report, will be taken into consideration and implemented by our Civic Chamber and our partners, including government bodies, civic chambers of the Russian Federation’s subjects and, naturally, by stakeholder non-profit organisations and other institutes of the civil society.

Further to its 2016 initiatives against encouraging suicidal behaviours among minors, in 2017 the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federationheld a series of public evaluations of relevant draft federal laws. Those included, in particular, Federal Law No.76354-7 “On Changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation”. The Civic Chamber did not support the draft due to its significant deficiencies. However, the next legal initiative did find support with the public evaluation board, i.e. the drafts of Federal Law No. 118634-7 “On Changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation in terms of introduction of additional mechanisms to counter activities encouraging suicidal behaviours among minors” and of Federal Law No. 118707-7 “On Changes to Individual Legal Enactments of the Russian Federation in terms of introduction of additional mechanism to counter activities encouraging suicidal behaviours among minors” subject to comments and proposals during the evaluation. At the time of the ‘zero reading’, the criminal law did not provide for liability for spreading information encouraging actions that threaten children’s lives and/or health, including self-injury and suicide, among children. In this light, the proposal to introduce criminal liability for such actions contained in the draft laws found the support of the public evaluators as being timely and justified.

Yet, the social impact of public control is so far insufficient. There are methodologies and reports, but there is no effective public control system at the local level. This, again, brings up the issue of the imperfect legislation at the regional level: there are no by-laws, there are no legal precedents, the status of public controllers and findings of the completed checks is not clear.

The Civic Chamber believes that the Law should be adjusted after the fundamental development vectors of the public control system are defined.

First, federal legislation should be amended to make the powers of public control entities and oversight mechanisms more specific ^* .

Such crucial areas as the judicial system, law enforcement, defence, banking, elections, etc. need public scrutiny and control. The Federal Law, however, stipulates no such procedures given the specifics of those areas. Control over protection of orphans’ rights is a separate issue. For example, Article 2 of Federal Law of 21 July 2014, No. 212-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Public Control in the Russian Federation” stipulates that public control of care for orphaned children and children without parental custody should be governed by the applicable federal law. Such federal laws are however currently non-existent.

Besides, efforts of public control entities at the regional and local government level need coordination. The system should include public councils established at the executive authorities and law enforcement agencies. It is the public councils that must become the foothold of regional public control in the future. The current Federal Law lacks a sufficiently clear conceptual framework, which is a critical issue. This results in diverse interpretations and difficulties in implementing its provisions, which impedes systemic improvement of the legal foundation for public control. The notions of “public authority”, “public interest”, “worthy cause” or “socially useful activities”, “public control object”, “public control entity” etc. should have more straightforward definitions .

Activism in the public control sphere has the reverse side as well. Precedents have already been reported when unscrupulous social organisations abuse the Law to blackmail commercial entities and even state-owned companies ^* . Fake controllers would hold an “inspection”, issue a “breach report” and start threatening businessmen with legal recourse, effectively engaging in extortion. Such fraudsters take advantage of the lack of legal knowledge in business to act against the law ^* .

Public control must be a civil society element rather than a personal enrichment mechanism.

For the law to be successfully applied, there must be liability established for both public control entities and individuals hampering public control. Article 27 of the Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Public Control in the Russian Federation” stipulates that offenders may be prosecuted. This provision is however not yet fully reflected in the sectoral legislation. Other issues of public control development include imperfect or lacking mechanisms for the non-government financing of public control entities.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation believes in the need to define a public control development road map. It would ensure a comprehensive set of legislative, organisational and financial measures and establish the responsibility to account for public control results ^* .

On 17 July 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation re-established the Electoral Rights Monitoring Task Force. For two months in advance of the single voting day on 10 September 2017, the society actively engaged in the public control of elections. The Task Force provided methodological and informational support and helped to establish similar groups at the civic chambers of the following regions, where they actively participated in public monitoring: Belgorod Region, Perm Territory, Sverdlovsk Region, Yaroslavl Region, Republic of Buriatia, Kirov Region, Tomsk Region, Omsk Region, Karelia Republic, Mari El Republic, Mordovia Republic, Republic of Udmurtia, Kaliningrad Region, Novgorod Region, Ryazan Region, Saratov Region, Sevastopol, Supplementary regions, Bryansk Region, Kursk Region, Khanty-Mansijsk, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. Over 2,000 public observers in more than 20 regions participated in public control of the elections during the single voting day representing task forces of the civic chambers, and over 40 events were held at the federal and the regional level. Several regional civic chambers issued their own handbooks for the observers participating in elections.

First Deputy Chairman of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Harmonisation of Inter-Ethnic and Inter-Religious Relations

Two weeks ago, the State Duma and then the Federation Council approved the law investing the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the regions' civic chambers with the rights of public control during elections. Now, just as candidates, political parties, civic chambers shall have the right to send their observers to be on the election commissions and voting stations. Actually, at the moment, a separate genuine institute of public control over elections is taking shape independent of political parties, independent of candidates. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, the civic chambers of the regions have been pressing for this for about five years, in the meantime, the practice of supervision over elections has become standard for our regional civic chambers: there are appropriate experts, activists, professionals. This is a very important activity, which expands public control capabilities both in the regions and at Federal level. Next year, we are supposed to have presidential elections in the Russian Federation. In all the 85 regions, our task forces will not be just observing the elections, but they will be sending their observers. That means we are faced with a very serious and ambition objective: at every polling station, there will be an observer from civic society, i.e. from the civic chambers. I do not doubt that this will be then followed by us being observers at the governors' elections, elections to the regions' legislative assemblies, elections at the level of municipalities, among others. We request our colleagues in the regions right away to recruit for task forces for control over elections representatives from the region's districts, municipal entities and thus we re-calibrate this system of public observation from Federal to regional level. This is really not just a tangible achievement for the system of civic chambers but it is a serious responsibility which, I am sure, we will be able to live up to with honour.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation operated a ‘hotline’ for protection of the citizens’ electoral rights. Similar ‘hotlines’ were also established at several regional civic chambers. On the election day, two observers call centres operated in close contact – at the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the call centre initiated by the Belgorod Region Civic Chamber.

Legislative recognition of the right of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the regional civic chambers to send observers to voting precincts during the Russian presidential election establishes a new important form of civic engagement. Besides, it creates all pre-requisites necessary to establish an elections public monitoring mechanism that is independent of candidates and political parties. It also helps to improve the election process transparency. This right needs to find its way into RF State Duma deputy elections, the election of governors and legislative bodies in Russian Federation constituents, and into public referendums at the federal and regional levels.

On November 21, the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation and the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation signed an agreement regarding control over electoral rights protection and election observers training. For example, approximately 100,000 observers delegated by civic chambers are expected to participate in the elections of the President of the Russian Federation.

Similar agreements are being signed at regional levels. Tula Region has had such agreements for a few years, and they have proved efficient.

Public Diplomacy: Russia’s Soft Power

Civil society is a pillar of both domestic and foreign policy of the government.

The Russian civil society consistently promotes dialogue based on the principles of equality and mutual respect between countries and nations despite the stronger pressure put on our country by the West in 2017. The unilateral sanctions result in material social and economic damages suffered by the states that initiate those sanctions. In such a troubled international environment, Russian NPOs involved in public diplomacy work hard not to allow relations to deteriorate and to activate the collaboration with civil society institutions worldwide that has already been established.

Public diplomacy is a response to global challenges. When politicians fail to reach an agreement, common people get involved, clear initiatives are implemented, and people and organisations that would like to continue collaboration and promote peace and stability do succeed in building bridges. Public diplomacy has a number of serious benefits compared to official diplomacy. It is less costly, its methods, approaches and contents are more diverse, it relies less on stereotypes, and takes into account the differences in social and cultural environments, as well as in customs and traditions.

Public diplomacy is an innovative technology of public self-organisation used to prevent conflicts or resolve them in an amicable way, bring states and nations closer, improve the living standards and protect the environment. A public diplomat is essentially a new profession and an extremely relevant one ^* .

Public diplomacy is the most important focus area for the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. In September 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation was re-elected to the Presidium of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions (AICESIS) that unites organized civil society institutions from 75 countries worldwide, which is one example of successful efforts in this domain.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation follows the principle “From personal contacts to intergovernmental contacts” in its international activities. The meetings with civil society organisations from Europe and North America held in 2017 proved effectiveness of such work. For example, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the European Economic and Social Committee held a joint workshop initiated by the European party after a three-year break. And although the US Department of State objected, a delegation of New York state senators paid a visit to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. Collaboration with the Asian partners, in particular, China, Vietnam and Laos, is enhanced. Integration processes get stronger throughout the Eurasian region in general. Public representatives participate in all CIS, CSTO, EEU, Greater Eurasia, SCO and BRICS summits.

Russian NPOs are extensively present at international forums, which helps with the extremely important task of sharing objective information about our country. Members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation take part in events run by the OSCE, the UN Human Rights Council and the Council of Europe , thus making sure that the matters that are topical for Russia remain on their agenda. Such matters include protection of traditional values, fighting aggressive nationalism, religious intolerance or neo-Nazi trends that become more pronounced in certain European states, counter-terrorism measures, and drug interdiction. As a result, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation received OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings M. Jarbusinova, the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on human rights I. Jazairy, and the OSCE Special Representative on Countering Radicalisation and Violent Extremism P. Neuman as its visitors in 2017. Besides, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation initiated the international conference “Combating Drugs and Related Crime. The interaction between the State and the Civil Society”, with Yu. V. Fedotov, the UN Under-Secretary-General, as a participant.

Our assertiveness is shared and supported by some countries and intensely opposed by other. The attempts to isolate Russia failed to yield the desired outcomes as evidenced by major international summits, sports events and international projects held in 2017. Examples include the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students , and the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation played an active rolein organizing and holding it. Participants and guests of such events coming to Russia from different countries can see the social and economic progress in our country with their own eyes, they get to know our people, and take home a friendly and hospitable image of our country.

Growing interest in the Russian language and culture becomes more prominent worldwide, therefore, there is demand for systemic efforts creating the conditions necessary to learn Russian. The successful implementation of the ‘Russian Corner’ project supports the idea: in 2017 alone, the number of requests for multimedia textbooks for learning Russian tripled. Given that, it is important to pool best practices used by foreign NPOs promoting Russian culture abroad, develop systemic support measures, and set up a system to promote experience sharing among such organisations.

In the modern international policy context, humanitarian efforts of Russian non-governmental organisations that produce an immediate impact on people’s lives become increasingly important. Actions like delivery of solar panels and new textbooks for a Russian Orthodox school in the suburbs of Jerusalem ^* , or delivery of Russian language and literature textbooks, ABC books, first readers, and arts learning guides to the Republic of Tadjikistan ^* by the Russian Humanitarian Mission , a Russian public organization, give rise to natural gratefulness and generally good feelings towards our country.

The tradition to gather supplies for relief cargos sent to Syria continues, which delivers a dramatic growth of interest and gratitude to Russia in that country. Over a thousand textbooks, books and multimedia learning aids were prepared and delivered to citizens of Syria in 2017.

Protection of Russian citizens abroad is an extremely important topic. They frequently fall victims to crime, and people who find themselves in a foreign environment and who do not know the language and the customs of the country where they are proven unable to protect their rights.

In 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation establisheda task force to monitor the court proceedings into the January 1991 attempted coup case in Vilnius. An important part of this initiative is to free the former tank commander Yuri Mel from prison. He has already spent some four years in a one-man cell without any charges pressed against him.

Proactive efforts to protect citizens’ rights continues in the South-East of Ukraine as well . The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation receives hundreds of letters on citizens’ rights violation by Kyiv authorities and prepares, with support from lawyers, a series of lawsuits to be filed with the ECHR.

In addition, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation pays close attention to preserving economic and social stability in Transdniester . Following up on the agreement signed by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and Transdniester representatives and using the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation as a platform, specific steps to develop relations between the civil societies of the two countries and joint actions aimed to resolve the problems of Russians residing in Transdniester were discussed. These efforts involved the Chairman of Transdniester Government and members of the State Duma.

Chairperson of the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Development of Public Diplomacy, Humanitarian Cooperation and Preservation of Traditional Values

During 2017, the Western countries have built up pressure on our country by resorting to sanctions which essentially are doing socio-economic harm to themselves. Notwithstanding such an aggressive policy with respect to Russia, our civic society has been consistently speaking out in favour of a dialogue on the basis of the principles of equality and mutual respect between our countries and nations. Russia's efforts aimed at creating effective soft power mechanisms have been meeting with outright rejection in the West which only serves as proof that we are steering the right course. A case in point can be the multiple obstacles strewn in the way of RussiaToday’s operation in the USA and the growing number of non-profit organisations who have been promoting the truth about Russia abroad and who have not been allowing history to be re-written, despite the pressure brought to bear on them by many Western countries. An ever more prominent role in our country is coming to be played by public diplomacy in response to the global challenges. When politicians cannot come to an agreement, common people get into the act, easy to understand initiatives come into play, bridges are built by people and organisations who are interested in continuing to cooperate, in continued peace and stability. Public diplomacy is one of the most important activities pursued by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.

An example illustrating how successful such efforts have been so far is the fact that, in September 2017, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation was again re-elected to the Presidium of the International Associations of Economic Social Councils and Similar Institutions (AICESIS), uniting organized institutions of civic society of 75 countries in the world.

Active work is being done to promote the Russian agenda on the fringes of the OSCE and the UN Human Rights Council and we, as direct participants and initiators of these processes, can say that members of the public of different countries want an open and honest dialogue with Russia and, in many respects, are not in agreement with the aggressive policy against our country.

However, we cannot overlook the fact that, at the moment, the organisations working in the area of soft power, are often disunited, know nothing about each other and, the most important thing, no one knows anything about them even in Russia. Hence, it becomes obvious that we need to openly discuss the measures and initiatives whose aim is to bring such organisations together and to support them. One of such initiatives could the stepping up of work with a view to creating a bank of Russia's soft power initiatives and instituting a prize for the best project promoting our country's interests abroad at the horizontal level.

Friendship, partnership, mutually beneficial contacts mean painstaking work. Russian public diplomacy organisations work persistently to establish, maintain and develop horizontal human contacts between Russia and other countries, and to make sure that they would demonstrate their resilience and be an example of “structural resistance” despite any challenges.In the times of sanctions, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation bridges the Russian society and the West. It is the mechanism to overcome the fictitious separating lines.