Rossotrudnichestvo

Last updated
Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation
Федеральное агентство по делам Содружества Независимых Государств, соотечественников, проживающих за рубежом, и по международному гуманитарному сотрудничеству (Россотрудничество)
Rossotrudnichestvo.png
Agency overview
FormedSeptember 6, 2008
Preceding agency
  • Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States
HeadquartersVozdvizhenka Street 18/9
Moscow
Agency executives
Website rs.gov.ru/en/

The Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation [a] or Rossotrudnichestvo is an autonomous Russian federal government agency under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [1] It is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and cultural exchange. Rossotrudnichestvo operates in Central Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe (but mostly in the Commonwealth of Independent States).

Contents

History

The agency was created from its predecessor agency by Presidential decree, signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 6 September 2008, with the aim of maintaining Russia's influence in the Commonwealth of Independent States, and to foster friendly ties for the advancement of Russia's political and economic interests in foreign states. [2]

Rossotrudnichestvo and its structures support pro-Russia rallies which are allegedly supported by local neo-Nazis. [3]

Apparently from an investigation by the Alexey Navalny associated website (navalny.com), Ekaterina Solotsinskaya, [b] who was Dmitry Peskov's second ex-wife, was fired in February 2018 as the head of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Paris (RCSC) or (RTsNK) (Russian : Российский центр науки и культуры в Париже (РЦНК)), which is under the auspices of Rossotrudnichestvo in France. [9] [11] [12]

According to OECD estimates, 2019 official development assistance from Russia increased to US$1.2 billion. [13]

Rossotrudnichestvo was assessed by expert observers [c] to be organising and orchestrating synchronous pro-Russian public rallies, demonstrations, and vehicle convoys across Europe in April 2022 in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Demonstrations were held simultaneously in Dublin (Ireland), Berlin, Hanover, Frankfurt (Germany), Limassol (Cyprus), and Athens (Greece). [14]

Sanctions

In July 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions on Rossotrudnichestvo in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [15]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Russian: Федеральное агентство по делам Содружества Независимых Государств, соотечественников, проживающих за рубежом, и по международному гуманитарному сотрудничеству; commonly known as Rossotrudnichestvo (Russian: Россотрудничество, "Russo-Colleagueship")
  2. ↑ Ekaterina Vladimirovna Solotsinskaya (Russian: Екатерина Владимировна Солоцинская born 1976) was Dmitry Peskov's former wife of 20 years until their 2014 divorce. She is the daughter of Vladimir Dmitrievich Solotsinsky (Russian: Владимир Дмитриевич Солоцинский; born 25 September 1948), who graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1970, entered the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973 and later the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is fluent in English and Turkish and was the former Russian Ambassador to North Macedonia from 8 June 2006 to 17 November 2010. She grew up in Ankara where her father was stationed and is where she, at 14 years old, met Peskov. Peskov, similar to her father, is fluent in Turkish and was a Russian-Turkish translator. She graduated from Institute of Asian and African Countries (IAAS) (Russian: ИСАА) at 18 years old and married Peskov. They moved to Moscow where she studied at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. After her gruaduation at MSU, she and her husband returned to Ankara where he was stationed as a diplomat and lived there for four years. When Yeltsin visited Istanbul, Katya's father Vladimir Solotsinsky recommended for Yeltsin's Russian-Turkish translator Solotsinsky's son-in-law Dmitry Peskov, who allegedly was the best Turkish-Russian translator on Russian Embassy's staff. Katya was a teacher. Later, Alexei Gromov invited Peskov to work in the Kremlin and on 31 December 1999, Dmitry was asked to be the head of the department. According to Katya, "He says: "Let's go?" and I can't do this, my students are in the middle of the school year." In June 2000, she and Peskov joined Putin's staff in Moscow. When she publicly admitted in August 2014 that she and Dmitry Peskov were divorced, she lived in France and their daughter Elizaveta "Liza" Peskova (born 1998), who had studied at the École des Roches in Verneuil-sur-Avre, which is the oldest private college in Normandy and was founded by Golitsyn princes, had graduated from school, their middle child Mika Peskov (born 2004 or 2005) was 10 years old, and their youngest child Denis Peskov (born 2008 or 2009) was six. From June 2017 until February 2018, she headed the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Paris (RCSC) or (RTsNK) (Russian: Российский центр науки и культуры в Париже (РЦНК)), which is called Rossotrudnichestvo in France. After Putin's trip to France in May 2017, she replaced Igor Shpynov (Russian: Игорь Шпынов) who had headed (RCSC) or (RTsNK) for many years, was known as a man of the old formation - intelligent and erudite, and allegedly was friends with Mireille Mathieu. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
  3. ↑ Ben Noble, associate professor of Russian politics at University College London; Mark Galeotti, an analyst and Russia specialist; and Sam Ramani, an international relations expert at Oxford University provided evaluations to The Times newspaper. [14]

References

  1. ↑ Weiss, Michael (December 29, 2017). "The KGB Playbook for Turning Russians Worldwide Into Agents". The Daily Beast . Retrieved January 12, 2018. For instance, the cultural organization Rossotrudnichestvo, run by Sergei Lavrov's Foreign Ministry, has financed any number of European governmental nongovernmental organizations—"GONGOs"—dealing with this mythical double-headed beast of resurgent Nazism and Russian persecution, from Tallinn to Tbilisi.
  2. ↑ "The Kremlin reinforces Russia's soft power in the CIS | Centre for Eastern Studies". Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
  3. ↑ "Bad Russians. Who organizes rallies in support of Putin in Europe, and what do Rossotrudnichestvo and neo-Nazis have to do with it?". The Insider (theins.ru). 19 September 2022. Archived from the original on 18 June 2025. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  4. ↑ "СОЛОЦИНСКИЙ, Владимир Дмитриевич" [SOLOTSINSKY, Vladimir Dmitrievich]. МИД (www.mid.ru) (in Russian). 2013. Archived from the original on 11 October 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  5. ↑ "Рейтинг звездных разводов-2014" [Rating of star divorces-2014]. «Руспрес» (www.rospres.com) (in Russian). 2014. Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  6. ↑ Lilith (22 August 2014). "Близкий друг Татьяны Навки Дмитрий Песков развелся с женой" [A close friend of Tatyana Navka, Dmitry Peskov, divorced his wife]. «Папарацци» (in Russian). Archived from the original on 22 August 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  7. ↑ Соловьева, Ксения (Solovyova, Ksenia) (September 2014). "Как пресс-секретарь Путина изменял с Татьяной Навкой" [How Putin's press secretary cheated with Tatyana Navka]. «Руспрес» (www.rospres.com) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "Песков-Чоулз безнаказанно избил "бабушку Буденного"" [Peskov-Choles beat "Budyonny's grandmother" with impunity]. «Руспрес» (www.rospres.com) (in Russian). 17 November 2016. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  9. 1 2 Козлов, Петр (Kozlov, Pyotr) (16 February 2018). "Бывшую жену Пескова уволили с должности главы Российского центра в Париже" [Peskov's ex-wife was fired from the post of head of the Russian Center in Paris]. Русская служба Би-би-си (bbc.com) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ "Все лучшее — женам! Бывшая супруга Дмитрия Пескова возглавила Российский центр науки и культуры в Париже (РЦНК)" [All the best for wives! The ex-wife of Dmitry Peskov headed the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Paris (RCSC)]. «Новые Времена» №21 (447) 12.06.17 (in Russian). 27 June 2017. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  11. ↑ "Уволили — хорошо. А что с деньгами?" [If you were fired, that's good. And what about money?]. navalny.com (in Russian). 19 February 2018. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  12. ↑ "Доказываем, что Песков — коррупционер. Квартира в Париже за 1,7 миллионов евро" [We prove that Peskov is a corrupt official. Apartment in Paris for 1.7 million euros]. navalny.com (in Russian). 21 December 2017. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  13. ↑ "Russia | Development Co-operation Profiles – Russia| OECD iLibrary". 16 June 2024.
  14. 1 2 Parker, Charlie (2022-04-16). "Kremlin 'is behind pro-Russian protests in Europe'". The Times. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30.
  15. ↑ "COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2022/1270 of 21 July 2022" . Retrieved 8 February 2022.
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