Putin Seeking to Destroy All Independent Charitable Activities in Russia, Bukina Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 19 – Russians have always been ready to help others, but charitable organizations really took off only about 15 years ago when Russia was freer and recovering from its economic travails. Unfortunately, in the time since then, Vladimir Putin has sought to destroy all charitable groups that the state doesn’t control, Kseniya Bukina says.

            In her description of the rise and current eclipse of Russian charitable work, the Novaya Gazeta journalist says that the destruction of such groups is not a collateral development but “the direct goal of the Putinist state” because “the very idea of a helping community is anathema to him” (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/08/19/chtob-vsem-propast-poodinochke).

            Charitable groups took off just over a decade ago, Bukina continues, after floods in Krasnodar Kray sparked interest in forming groups that could coordinate giving and led to the formation of an independent journalist effort, “Help is Needed,” which provided information to Russians on how they could help.

            One of the most important forms of charitable activity involved adoptions. As Russians chose to adopt, orphanages emptied. But with Putin’s moves against groups helping such unfortunate children, the number of adoptions dropped over the last three years and the number in orphanages has gone back up.

            A major reason that Putin opposes charitable work of all kinds is that he favors the older Russian view that people need to help themselves in the first instance rather than benefiting from helping others and that any collective effort to provide assistance must come exclusively from the state.

            With the rise of charitable groups in the last decade, many hoped that such popular attitudes were changing and even saw such changes as fundamental to the transformation of Russian society into a more modern one where people would assume that taking care of others was a central part of their lives.

            But with Putin’s shuttering of charitable groups, such hopes for Russia have had to be put on hold; and many people there whom the state is doing little or nothing to help no longer can expect assistance from other residents of that country, something that further reduces social cohesion in the Russian Federation, exactly what Putin wants.