Pro-Democracy Russians Say Shuttering Moscow-Backed US Russian Community Council Justified

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 18 – Kremlin-linked media had a field day with the decision of the Russian Community Council of the USA to “temporarily” suspend its activities because of FBI investigations of its activities, and Russian coverage of this action was picked up by many American media outlets without much consideration of what in fact the Council is about.

            But the Russian-Language America for Democracy in Russia organization has released a statement suggesting that the US authorities are entirely justified in investigating the Council given its links to the Russian foreign ministry and that those who support democracy should back those efforts.

            Below is the organization’s statement, reproduced here because it did not feature in Western media reports about this case (facebook.com/4demrussiaus/posts/228012566100963):

We, the representatives of the Russian-language diaspora in more than 15 US cities that advocate for freedom and democracy in Russia, declare the following regarding the suspension of the US KSORS activities and the allegations of political persecution by the US authorities of the Russian diaspora:

Thousands of our activists in different US cities - from Boston to Miami, from Chicago to Houston, from Seattle to Los Angeles - law-abiding Russians living in the US and protesting in support of Navalny and other political prisoners , on pickets of solidarity with Belarusians in their fight for freedom, on action in memory of the victims of the Second World War, reading the names of those repressed by the Soviet authorities and other actions have never been subjected to unreasonable persecution by the American authorities. Instead, the police and local authorities have assisted us in holding actions, protected and created conditions for comfortable and free public expression of opinion;

We claim that Russians in the United States, who do not violate the law and value the rule of law, are not subjected to baseless persecution, unlike Russians in Russia, who are persecuted in front of the world for political and religious views, hold back There are some at rallies and single pickets, there are some for reposts on social networks, for reading the Bible or Quran, in support of opposition politicians or for critical opinion against the existing government. Russians in the United States are more protected than in their own country, as witnessed by numerous villas and apartments owned by people connected to Russian authorities in the United States;

The result of the US KSORS state, which occurred in 2014-2015, was the degradation of this informal organization, which was essentially a unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation - similar to how it degrades everything regarding the regime of Vladimir Putin, which is at the in power for more than 20 years;

It is important for us to continue consolidation in the USA communities of adequate Russians as alternatives to pro-Kremlin structures, which will probably be mimicry and reborn under new names. The image of the Russians we represent in the USA is Russians for freedom, democracy, the rule of law, the division of power, for a dynamically developing Russia integrated into the world community.

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