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Excerpts from the JRL E-Mail Community :: Founded and Edited by David Johnson
#27 - JRL 2006-43 - JRL Home
From: "Susan G. McIntosh" <mcintosh@mida.com>
Subject: Re less money for "democracy"
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006

Two points.

1. I have just experienced Russia's new policy of coming down hard on foreign charities. They want substantially more documentation for transactions that were routine in previous years. This is true even for a humanitarian organization with absolutely no political involvement.

2. Apparently the US government will be allocating less money for "democracy" in Russia in the next fiscal year. Their government is understandably concerned that foreign funds that sponsored regime change in surrounding countries could threaten them. However many good programs are being thrown out with the bath water here. Among them: the SABIT program to facilitate professional exchanges in the fields of business, medicine, and government. Hope we can keep the SABIT program alive. It provides a true opportunity for people from the former Soviet Union to experience what professionals in the west are doing.

Susan McIntosh
President
Russian Medical Fund.