Hello everyone! I hope you had a good week!
This week I will be writing about Humanitarian Organizations
in Russia. This will slightly different from the humanitarian organization in
South Sudan post, because Russia has recently put unique restraints on NGOs,
especially foreign ones, in the country. It will also be a shorter post because
mid terms are coming up and I have so much reading to get through. I am
currently sitting in library with a large cup of Starbucks coffee and books,
notebooks, and folders piled around me wearing my comfiest big sweater, my
comfiest jeans, and my warm Toms with my hair pulled back out of my face and ear
buds in my ears that are playing “In the Beginning” by the Stills from Spodify.
Well, on to Russia.
When I went to look up works that humanitarian organizations
were doing in Russia, I couldn’t find much of any kind. What confused me,
however, was that you constantly hear of how people are being mistreated in the
totalitarian (or authoritarian depending on your definitions of the two)
country. I remembered from the AP Comparative Government class in high school
that Russia had been pushing some foreign NGOs out and so that is exactly what I
will write about. In the case of Russia it is almost easier to write about the
lack of humanitarian organizations than trying to find one to write about.
Putin wants NGOs to allow themselves to be listed as
“foreign agents,” which is a term with a very negative connotation. Putin also wants
to kick out any of these organizations that he sees as not cooperating with
Russian law. But this is difficult to do when Putin continues to change the law
and continues to do whatever he wishes without considering the affect a
decision will have on the country and its citizens. More and more NGOs are
being investigated and it seems that the majority of them are being dissolved
right away once they are investigated. As of September 2013, Russia has named
80 NGOs are “foreign agents,” including NGOs with purposes to address voter’s
rights, environmental issues, gender equality and LGBT issues.
Even though many have urged Putin to stop this investigation
process, it seems that he firmly believes that “Western states use NGOs to spy
on Russia and to meddle in its affairs” (Reuters article listed below).
Well, for now it looks as though, for conditions to become
better in Russia, the people will need to protest. To me Russia seems to be
taking a step back to a combination of two elements of its history. To me the
current (apparently transitional democratic) government to me seems to actually
be an odd combination of the government under Tsarist Russia and the government
under the communist USSR. (It appears that despite it labeling itself
democratic, Russia is still defining the people who live in it as peasants,
rather than citizens.
Without the influence of NGOs in Russia, I am sort of afraid
of what might happen to Russia. I get the feeling that it wants to once again
cut itself off from the rest of the world, especially the West, just like it
had during the reign of the Soviet Block.
I might be a little weird, but this is the type of thing I
think about all the time. I will even get distracted from hanging out with
friends just so I can look things up about the humanitarian happenings around
the world, This stuff truly worries me. Well, I should probably try to force
myself to focus on schoolwork now. I really hope that I am putting myself in
the position to do something about humanitarian issues in the future.
Have a wonderful week and if Valentines Day is a thing you
do, have fun! I’m heading back to get some work done. I now have coffee in my
system, so I should have the energy to knock everything out.
Thanks for reading my blog. Please comment letting me know
what you think about the direction Russia is going, or just anything at all.
And please share my blog with anyone you think would be interested, if you like
it. That would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Sources:
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