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Final Words

In conclusion, we want to thank everyone who does not give up with us and continues to act, and to congratulate you and your loved ones on the upcoming New Year! We believe that the key to victory over dictatorship and to our success lies in our collective actions. When we talk about resistance to dictatorship, about the struggle for freedom and justice, it often seems to us that this battle is unfolding somewhere far away - in squares, in meeting halls, at speeches. But in fact, this struggle begins inside each of us and continues in each of our actions. Every time we choose to speak the truth, even if our voice seems weak. Every time we help each other, even if the help is small. Every time we join forces and act together, even if our contribution seems small. Every time we maintain faith in goodness, even when the darkness seems impenetrable - we are taking the most important step. We create the light that can dispel any dictatorship, any injustice. We cannot wait for someone to come and change the world. Dictatorship feeds on our apathy, our passivity, and our fears. It will not disappear on its own. But each of us has a power we sometimes don't even suspect. The power to make choices, the power to believe, the power to love, the power to act. Each of our actions is a small ray of light breaking through the darkness. When we refuse to submit to injustice. When we support victims of dictatorship and war. When we remain true to humanistic values and our conscience. This is the fight we can wage beyond the front line. The greatness of resistance is not only in grand gestures but in the consistent steps we take every day, even if they seem small. We see that small actions, put together, become noticeable. Resistance is a path made up of many steps. And each of us is capable of taking our step and thereby making our contribution. Remember: dictatorship always fears what is in us. It fears our courage, our faith, our humanity. So let's not let it win. Let's stay true to our core values, hold on to each other, and together become the force that will lead to change.

RUSSIAN AMERICA

FOR DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA

2024 RESULTS

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Greetings!

The year 2024 has come to an end, which means it's time to summarize the work of our diaspora organization of pro-democratic and

anti-war Russians in the USA, Russian America for Democracy in Russia. Together, we have accomplished a lot this past year. Let's look at all our projects and achievements.

Here we go!

Protest Actions

RADR as an organization was born from street protests, which we began organizing on a large scale in 2021 in support of Alexei Navalny in different US cities, in cooperation with colleagues from other diasporas around the world. During these actions, we get to know each other, meet like-minded people, articulate our values and demands, and communicate our agenda to a wide audience through journalists.

At the end of January, solidarity actions with Alexei Navalny were held in many US communities marking the anniversary of his return to Russia and demanding his freedom
On February 16 and 17, memorial actions were held in all US communities in connection with Navalny's murder by Putin's dictatorship
In February, on the anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, our communities held actions across America in support of Ukraine and condemning the actions of the Russian government
In March, RADR communities held actions as part of the international "Noon Against Putin" campaign, calling for the recognition of dictator Putin's illegitimacy
In October, in collaboration with Memorial, we held commemorative "Return of Names" actions dedicated to victims of political repression in Russia
In November, anti-war actions were held in US communities under the slogan "Victory to Ukraine! Freedom to Russia!" demanding an end to the war on the terms of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and the release of political prisoners in Russia

Our activists in Sacramento have been holding monthly actions since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — gathering with Ukrainians at the California State Capitol on the 24th of each month in support of Ukraine, and on the 6th of each month expressing solidarity with Russian political prisoners.

In 2025, we will continue organizing actions - follow our social media and take part!

Freedom Birds for Ukraine Project

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FBU is a fundraising, entirely volunteer project providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainians from anti-war Russians. All funds collected go to help Ukraine.

In 2024, thanks to you, the project managed to collect $140,000 in donations. This represents over 2,000 individual donations.

Some examples of that help are:

A vehicle for volunteers in Mykolaiv to replace one destroyed by a mine ($7,100.72)
Assistance to the "Russians for Ukraine" shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Poland ($2,304.91)
Gifts for children in frontline Beryslav, Kherson region, together with our partners Help Ukraine Hub ($2,357.10)
Assistance to the Okhmatdet Children's Center in Kyiv after bombing ($3,907.00)

Important fundraising work is carried out by local communities. At events in Los Angeles, activist Anastasia Kornienko and other activists from the Navalny LA community (https://t.me/NavalnyLA) regularly sell handmade items, with proceeds donated to Freedom Birds for Ukraine humanitarian needs. Activists from the RADR community in Sacramento launched the "Mugs for Lives" campaign, selling hand-painted mugs and directing the proceeds to tourniquets for Ukrainian defenders. Our colleagues and FBU participants from the German organization Freies Russland NRW (https://t.me/NRWFreiesRussland) conduct fundraising in Germany to direct funds toward purchasing drones for Ukraine. Such active participation is incredibly inspiring, and we are sincerely grateful to everyone who has joined this work!

Since the launch of the FBU project, our collections have crossed the $300,000 mark. Our project is one of the largest grassroots projects by Russians helping Ukrainian military and civilians. All this is possible only thanks to your participation. We thank everyone who donates to the project; we incredibly value these collective efforts and are ready to continue with you - we still have a lot of work ahead.

Agents Project

As part of the Agents research project, we collect and analyze information about American organizations and individuals working in America in the interests of the Kremlin. We pass these analytical materials to US law enforcement agencies. Agents is not a project that regularly makes news, but in 2024, two events occurred that deserve mention. First, it became known that Igor Kochan, the head of the Russian Youth of America organization in New York whose activities we had been studying, had his home searched by the FBI, after which he left the US and went to Russia. Igor had long been a member of KSORS USA, an organization that held its conferences in the Russian embassy and whose leader, Elena Branson, was accused by the FBI of working as an agent of the Russian state in the US.

Although the FBI did not bring formal charges against Kochan, it is obvious that Igor Kochan decided not to wait for that moment and not to defend himself in an American court. The second news came at the end of the year—the arrest of New York resident Nomma Zarubina, a friend of Elena Branson, on charges of deceiving the FBI about Zarubina's contacts with the FSB. Nomma also participated in KSORS USA events, like Igor Kochan.

After Elena Branson was charged in 2022, Nomma sharply changed her views from turbo-patriotic to oppositional and anti-war, began attending opposition events, including those held by RADR, taking photos with well-known opposition figures, and in 2024 even spoke at several conferences as an expert on decolonization. RADR was the first to publish news of her arrest and translated into Russian the publicly available accusation materials revealing details of Zarubina's relationship with FSB officers. Why is this important? We would like Russians in the US to be judged not by Branson, Kochan, Zarubina, and other similar individuals, but by the activities of pro-democratic and anti-war Russians. It is important for us to create an alternative to pro-Kremlin organizations, to become stronger and more visible, so that the reputation of agents does not extend to all Russians in the US. Join our work!

Adaptation Project

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In 2024, the RADR organization continued to help recent immigrants adapt to their new country. Currently, adaptation chats are functioning in Miami, Sacramento, NY, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. If you live in these cities but are not yet participating in these chats - join us - we will be happy to see you! You can find links to these chats in the description of this video. On the RADR YouTube channel, we launched regular streams with experienced immigration lawyer Liya Dzhamilova, who comments on current changes in immigration processes in real-time and answers listeners' questions. Also, this year we launched a large, free online educational course, Business Navigator, for those who want to start and develop a business in the US. As part of Business Navigator, project experts talk about how to register a legal entity, maintain accounting and pay taxes, understand the legal aspects of business, choose business insurance, obtain licenses and permits, and much more that is necessary for successfully launching and running a business in a new country.

Project experts also provide individual mentoring consultations to participants. Additionally, in the newly formed community of aspiring entrepreneurs, we began conducting regular mastermind sessions where participants ask questions and share their experiences in solving various business situations. We will begin enrollment for a new Business Navigator course group at the beginning of 2025, follow the announcements on our social media and take part! It is important for us to help newcomers - they join our communities and count on our support. Even a small piece of advice or sharing your own experience can be useful and help immigrants feel that they are not alone.

Detention Project

Unfortunately, this year, refugees from Russia seeking asylum at the southern US border found themselves in dire straits - the vast majority of them are placed in detention for an indefinite period. Presumably, US immigration authorities have imposed restrictions on Russians due to increased threats from Russian intelligence services. This has led to serious consequences for detainees: parents are separated from children, refugees find it almost impossible to independently hire a lawyer from detention, they are denied access to evidence on their electronic devices, and transfers from one detention center to another result in the reset of their judicial process. In addition, detention centers are unable to provide medical care for detainees. RADR is actively helping, doing everything possible to support refugees. We organized a fundraiser for a lawyer for a family of Yakut anti-war activists, successfully raised funds with your help, and hired an immigration lawyer for them. We also launched a fundraiser for a lawyer for Polina Guseva, a volunteer from Team Navalny, who is currently in detention. Our coordinators regularly communicate with the press to help publicize the refugee problem.

For a detailed description of the situation, we have compiled a database of rights violations faced by refugees from Russia in different US detention centers. We provide information on the situation to the US State Department and Congress to keep them informed of what is happening. For the Anti-War Committee conference held in early November, RADR prepared a report on the situation in detention centers and recommended measures to address it. It is important to us that the reaction to threats to democratic countries from the Russian dictatorship does not turn against political refugees who face persecution in Russia for resisting the dictatorship. It is very important for us to demonstrate that pro-democratic Russians are allies of the free world in the fight against the empire of evil. We hope that all those persecuted in Russia and currently in US immigration detention will successfully gain freedom and that similar situations will not be repeated in the future.

Support for Political Prisoners

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Activists from our communities regularly gather for evenings of writing letters to political prisoners. Letters and postcards for political prisoners are important support from like-minded people in conditions of social isolation. Also, letters are a signal to the system that the political prisoner is not alone and that many care about their fate. Regular evenings of writing letters to political prisoners are held in Sacramento, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. You can also organize such events in your city. Join us! At the end of the year, we launched a charity campaign "Buy a Book - Help a Political Prisoner"! This campaign was made possible thanks to opposition authors - well-known journalists, human rights activists, writers whose books are participating in this charity campaign. Half of the proceeds from the books will be sent to help lonely and little-known prisoners of conscience. In December, we opened a separate fundraiser for lonely and little-known political prisoners - those who dared to speak out against the war and Putin's regime. These people often have no relatives, close friends, or support groups. News channels don't write about them, and their stories of protest are little known. They are forced to survive in a cruel prison system where support can become a matter of life and death. The funds collected will go to providing basic needs:

Packages with food and personal hygiene products.
Medicines that are necessary in the harsh conditions of prison confinement and inadequate nutrition.
Replenishment of prison accounts, which is especially important for those who are kept in strict conditions and can receive only one package a year weighing up to 20 kg. Thanks to funds in prison accounts, political prisoners can order food.

To survive in prison conditions, the necessary minimum is 5 thousand rubles per month. That's $50. Support lonely and little-known political prisoners by subscribing to monthly donations. The link to the fundraiser is in the video description.

Advocacy Project

On March 11 and 12, 30 delegates from Russian America for Democracy in Russia from 10 US states gathered in America's capital, Washington, D.C., for a two-day advocacy campaign in the US Congress. This campaign became the first modern advocacy effort by the pro- democratic Russian diaspora in the US. During the campaign, delegates held more than 60 meetings with members of Congress and staff from their offices responsible for international issues and bill development. Our first advocacy agenda included 5 points:

Recognition by the US Congress of the illegitimacy of dictator Putin
Support by RADR communities for providing military and financial assistance to Ukraine
Creation in the US Congress of a Democratic Russia Caucus - a working group that can facilitate the development of measures to contain the dictatorship and support Russian civil society and resistance projects
Development of a mechanism for exchanging Russian political prisoners
Expansion of sanctions against the dictatorship

Looking back, we see that in April, Congress successfully voted for the requested aid package for Ukraine, and in August, the first major exchange took place, resulting in several Russian political prisoners being freed. However, the recognition of Putin as illegitimate and the creation of a Democratic Russia Caucus still need to be accomplished, and we are committed to continuing work in this direction in the coming year. In 2024, RADR delegates also participated in two Ukrainian advocacy efforts organized by the American Coalition for Ukraine - in April and September.

For the third year since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, RADR is the only Russian organization supporting Ukrainian advocacy in Congress. We greatly value the trust of our Ukrainian colleagues, are committed to cooperation in the future, and will do everything possible to bring Ukraine closer to victory. For RADR, a grassroots civil organization, advocacy activities in Congress represent a significant achievement. It is important for us to actively assert ourselves at the Congressional level, showing that there are Russians who oppose the war, support freedom, democracy, and Ukraine. We unite in communities and organizations, demonstrating our agency and readiness to be allies of the civilized world in confronting the empire of evil.

Participation in Conferences, Collaboration with Other Projects

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RADR is an active participant in the global community of grassroots civic initiatives by Russians around the world. We often organize major protest actions simultaneously with many other pro-democratic communities worldwide. In February 2024, Chicago coordinators and activists of RADR organized the conference "We Are Not Alone: Spiritual Crises in Wartime." The conference featured speakers Sister Vassa (Larina), a well-known liturgist and professor at the University of Vienna, and Sergey Chapnin, an Orthodox publicist known for his statements on the crisis within the Russian Orthodox Church and his criticism of it in the context of the war in Ukraine. In June of the past year, a RADR delegation participated in a two-day conference in the US capital called the Washington Dialogue, which brought together representatives of Russian civil society, American organizations, US administration officials, and members of the US Congress. We strive to expand dialogue with American stakeholders and hope to continue. In February, coordinators of the Chicago RADR community, with AKR support, organized a meeting between Sergey Aleksashenko and activists in Chicago. In October, the RADR community in Washington hosted a meeting with Anastasia Shevchenko and Dmitry Gudkov. In October, RADR volunteers in different US cities helped Ekaterina Shulman and Maxim Kurnikov during their appearances in the US.

In November, RADR prepared a report on the crisis with Russian refugees in US detention centers for the Anti-War Committee conference. In the coming year, we plan to participate more in international conferences and round tables. In 2024, RADR provided informational support to anti-war art - Misha Suvorov's mono- performance "Border," which received the Best of The Actor's Company Award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, and the anti-war festival Art Against War, which was organized with the participation of the DeepARTment organization and activists from the NavalnyLA community in Los Angeles.