ACTIVITY DATES: September 2006 - July 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: Transparency International-Russia

REGION(S): Adygeya Republic, Chelyabinskaya oblast, Kostromskaya oblast, Mordoviya Republic, Moscow, Moskovskaya oblast, Novgorodskaya oblast, Orlovskaya oblast, Rostovskaya oblast, St. Petersburg, Tambovskaya oblast, Tomskaya oblast, Vologodskaya oblast, Yaroslavskaya oblast

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Under this project, Transparency International (TI) monitors the parliamentary and presidential electoral campaigns in Russia in order to identify and document misuse of public resources, known as "administrative resources," and to analyze these cases from a legal and procedural perspective.

Project activities also aim to raise public awareness of the effect the use of administrative resources has in electoral campaigns and to supply civil society with efficient tools and instruments for electoral monitoring.  Specific recommendations for electoral bodies and civil society institutions have been developed to assist the identification of administrative resource misuse and minimize its incidence.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

TI-Russia established a monitoring team of 22 experts covering electoral campaign activities in 16 Russian regions, training regional monitoring groups in direct monitoring methods and developing instruments for collection and analysis of information.  During the electoral period, results of TI's monitoring, research and analytical efforts were posted on http://www.transparency.org.ru/ and other websites.

The program developed 23 case-studies, reflecting a sample of the abuse of administrative resources during the campaigns, described in detail in TI-Russia's monthly Monitoring Bulletins, a round-table on electoral advertisement and campaigning, and a series of five press-conferences producing extensive print and electronic media coverage of the issue of administrative resource abuse. These case studies will be used to help improve the implementation of Russian law that prohibits the abuse of public resources during election campaigns.

ACTIVITY DATES: June 2005 - August 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: International Republican Institute (IRI)

REGION(S): Altaiskiy kray, Kaliningradskaya oblast, Krasnodarskiy kray, Moscow, Novosibirskaya oblast, Omskaya oblast, Pskovskaya oblast, Rostovskaya oblast, Samarskaya oblast, St. Petersburg, Stavropolskiy kray, Tyumenskaya oblast

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
IRI is focused on supporting and developing democratically oriented parties at regional and national levels.  To achieve this, IRI works to strengthen the links between political parties and civic organizations to ensure parties' responsiveness to the public.  The program also encourages youth participation in the political process through advocacy skills training.  To monitor the progress of this program and the overall advance of civil society in Russia, IRI conducts periodic polls utilizing a reputable local polling organization.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

IRI's successful Youth Leadership Development sessions continue to be held throughout Russia.  The sessions are intended to augment the advocacy and coalition building skills of the participants, as well as to develop an inter-regional youth network focused on advocacy for youth-related issues.  Approximately 900 participants took part in these trainings in 2007.

IRI is introducing a comprehensive assistance program for the Kirov Oblast following the new Governor's request that IRI act as a conduit for economic development and media programming.  In coordination with USAID and other organizations, IRI will continue to work with regional authorities to identify opportunities for increasing citizen participation and leadership responsiveness.  

Beginning in late 2009, IRI will develop a new legislative exchange program. The program will facilitate an exchange of Russian and American decision makers, working on common problems and solutions.  The program will initially involve Russian State Duma members, but plans are to gradually shift the focus to include regional leaders and their staff.

IRI continues to implement its successful polling project, delivering timely and informative reports on the political environment and citizen attitudes toward political issues. 

ACTIVITY DATES: September 2007 - August 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: Moscow School of Political Studies (MSPS)

REGION(S): Dagestan Republic, Irkutskaya oblast, Kabardino-Balkariya Republic, Kaliningradskaya oblast, Krasnoyarskiy kray, Moskovskaya oblast, Primorskiy kray, St. Petersburg, Stavropolskiy kray

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
A long-time USAID partner, MSPS conducts seminars for young leaders on fundamental principles of a democratic society, helping them better understand all aspects of rule of law, media freedom, citizen participation and government accountability in a free society.  In particular, this project supports a series of federal, inter-regional and regional seminars and roundtables that constitute a two-year training curriculum that results in a MSPS certificate/diploma.  The project also supports the implementation of a recent internal reform of the School's administrative procedures intended to strengthen the long-term sustainability of the organization.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

Since 1992, the School has educated more than 6,400 young leaders about the basic principles of a democratic society and market economy.  Under this project, the school has conducted 17 seminars for more than 850 people.

MSPS recently expanded its geographic reach, conducting regional seminars in Vladivostok and Kaliningrad in partnership with the local School of Municipal Management. The events drew representatives of the Regional Legislative Assemblies, regional and city administrators, public activists, journalists, political party leaders, scholars and entrepreneurs. 

The first MSPS alumni club was created in Irkutsk, which will serve as a platform for MSPS's regional seminar series in Irkutsk Oblast.  This club is a model for the hundreds of MSPS alumni in regions across Russia.  MSPS also launched a new web-site http://www.mspsnet.ru/ to improve communication among MSPS alumni.

ACTIVITY DATES: May 2007 - August 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: Golos Association

REGION(S): Adygeya Republic, Altaiskiy kray, Arkhangelskaya oblast, Astrakhanskaya oblast, Bashkortostan Republic, Chelyabinskaya oblast, Chuvashiya Republic, Irkutskaya oblast, Kabardino-Balkariya Republic, Kaliningradskaya oblast, Kaluzhskaya oblast, Karelia Republic, Kostromskaya oblast, Krasnodarskiy kray, Krasnoyarskiy kray, Kurskaya oblast, Mariy-El Republic, Moscow, Nizhegorodskaya oblast, Novgorodskaya oblast, Novosibirskaya oblast, Omskaya oblast, Orlovskaya oblast, Permskaya oblast, Primorskiy kray, Pskovskaya oblast, Rostovskaya oblast, Ryazanskaya oblast, Samarskaya oblast, St. Petersburg, Stavropolskiy kray, Sverdlovskaya oblast, Tatarstan Republic, Tomskaya oblast, Tverskaya oblast, Vladimirskaya oblast, Volgogradskaya oblast, Voronezhskaya oblast, Yaroslavskaya oblast, Ulyanovskaya oblast

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Through a vast network of election activists, Golos Association monitors Federal and regional elections and educates voters on recent changes in Russian electoral legislation and violations of electoral rights, encouraging voters to report these violations through its voter hotline.  Thus far, Golos has trained about 5,900 activists who coordinate through a Russia-wide election monitoring network. Activists monitored the electoral campaigns and election day operations during the 2007 and 2008 federal elections, using methodologies developed by Golos and accumulated within the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) network, and continued their monitoring efforts in 2008/09 by observing and reporting on regional elections.  Information about the election campaigns is collected and publicized for international and Russian audiences.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

Golos Association successfully conducted voter education activities in more than thirty regions prior to federal elections in December 2007.  In several cases, Golos forged partnerships with local election commissions to engage in joint activities aimed at increasing public understanding of election law.

Golos fielded nearly 2,000 election day observers in both the December 2007 Parliamentary vote and the March 2008 Presidential contest (4,000 total), providing the only substantial non-party observation effort in Russia. 

Golos continues to advocate for civil society organizations' right and ability to monitor elections.  They have also diligently reported on both the improvements and deficiencies in electoral processes, providing a critically needed objective assessment of Russia's electoral system.

While observing regional elections in 2008/09, Golos introduced a new internationally recognized methodology for election monitoring, which significantly increases the reach and statistical relevance of election observation. The new methodology was deemed successful and will be utilized in upcoming regional and Federal elections.

Golos received recognition for its monitoring of the high-profile mayoral elections in Sochi in April 2009 with requests for interviews and evaluations from several international media outlets.

ACTIVITY DATES: June 2004 - September 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: Foundation for Information Policy Development (FIPD)

REGION(S): Altaiskiy kray, Arkhangelskaya oblast, Buryatiya Republic, Chitinskaya oblast, Kaliningradskaya oblast, Kaluzhskaya oblast, Khabarovskiy kray, Krasnodarskiy kray, Moskovskaya oblast, Primorskiy kray, Rostovskaya oblast, Sverdlovskaya oblast, Tverskaya oblast, Yaroslavskaya oblast

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

This project fosters communication between regional journalists, media experts and appointed/elected officials at different levels, in order to develop a dialogue between all participants in the political and electoral process leading up to and during Federal and municipal electoral campaigns.  The goal is to help local authorities and media leaders to better understand and support the role of the mass media in the effective functioning of a democratic society.

FIPD organizes educational activities designed to:  1) provide media representatives with the training necessary for efficient coverage of regional politics, policies and elections; 2) establish a council of regional media experts that provides analytical expertise, educates the public on the local media issues, and widely disseminates best practices; and 3) involve youth in developing individual and group strategies for community agenda setting prior to elections.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

FIPD has become a recognized resource for media and local authorities, sponsoring seminars, conferences, and analyses.  The organization has received support for its activities from government bodies, regional executive power officials, and oblast level electoral administrators.

FIPD's network of regional experts expanded to 75 regions and produced 25 expert analytical polls on different political issues, which were made publicly available on the FIPD website (http://www.frip.ru/).  The FIPD newsletter expanded its circulation to over 1100 subscribers, including the Russian Presidential Administration.

FIPD held more than 70 regional and national level seminars on cooperation among media, government authorities, and local constituencies to promote self-governance reform and information policy. Over 4000 participants attended - including representatives from media and NGOs, as well as officials from regional and municipal administrations, electoral administrations, legislative assemblies, and political parties. Three national conferences, which drew 400 media specialists from across Russia, were also conducted.

In cooperation with the Council of Federation, FIPD launched an all-Russia contest on best coverage of local self-governance reform that attracted more than 1200 participants.  The FIPD program "Youth and Regional Social Policy Agenda" was also launched.

ACTIVITY DATES: June 2005 - July 2009

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: National Democratic Institute (NDI)

REGION(S): Astrakhanskaya oblast, Moscow, St. Petersburg

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

NDI focuses its activities on two areas: domestic election monitoring and civic outreach.  For election monitoring, NDI provides technical assistance and training opportunities to its primary Russian partner Golos Association on observation implementation and organizational management.  For civic outreach, NDI developed a regional pilot project designed to promote deeper citizen engagement in the political process in selected regions.  NDI emphasizes the necessity of outreach in all its activities, and makes an effort to illustrate their transparency and willingness to work with all parties and all relevant actors in the political arena.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

NDI conducted 6 Inter-regional Center training sessions for Golos Association staff on methods for effective election monitoring and 10 assessment trips of Golos during its first field action in late 2007.  NDI conducts assessment trips and has increased the number of training sessions, including training on issue advocacy and leadership responsiveness.  NDI was instrumental in providing support to Golos in monitoring the recent high-profile elections in Sochi.

In May 2009, in cooperation with the Carnegie Moscow Center, the Gorbachev Foundation and the U.S. Embassy/Moscow, NDI co-sponsored an outreach event focused on the historical and contemporary parallels between Franklin Roosevelt's and Barack Obama's first hundred days in office.

Long-term observers from NDI and Golos Association began conducting distance learning trainings.  Large packets of material for the trainees were disseminated and each NDI trainer communicates regularly with 2-4 Golos long-term observers.