Killing kindness

Helping others has become a dangerous business in Russia, where volunteers are increasingly being subjected to prosecution for their good deeds. Among my friends back in Russia are those who, often at great personal risk, devote their time to helping Ukrainian refugees, people forced to live in the very country responsible for destroying their homes and killing their loved ones.

But it’s not only refugees they help, it’s also the most vulnerable people in Russian society: the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, foster children and Roma families — those who were in a difficult position even before the war.

Volunteering and the charity sector in Russia began to boom in the mid-2010s, as numerous foundations were set up, among them Help Needed, established by journalist Dmitry Aleshkovsky following devastating flooding in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region in 2012. Help Needed soon grew into one of the largest charities in the country, but was declared a “foreign agent” by the Russian government in March, and was subsequently forced to liquidate itself.

After US citizens were banned from adopting Russian children in 2012, Russia also experienced a boom in fostering, which saw the number of orphans institutionalised in Russia decrease by 66% in 10 years, from 106,000 in 2013 to just 35,000 in 2023.

However, the number of people choosing to foster has declined in the last three years. The war in Ukraine has led to rising prices and widespread feelings of uncertainty among the population, and many now feel unable to help as much as they would like.

While it’s very difficult to say exactly how many Russians were actively involved in charity work, a 2021 survey found that 30% of respondents said they regularly donated money to charities, while 75% said they had done so at least once.

But I consider the most important paradigm shift to have been the abandonment of old modes of thinking, which viewed volunteers as a small minority of saints and questioned the wisdom of sharing at all, and their replacement by a new philosophy whereby every little helped.

The old way of thinking was a scarcity mindset — your own situation is not stable enough for you to help others. The new way of thinking is social and collective: other people are no longer perceived as a threat, people needn’t feel alone anymore. There is no shame in asking and no fear in giving.

This new mindset took a hit after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as people’s trust in NGOs fell sharply after many were declared “foreign agents” or “undesirable organisations” by the Kremlin.

As Russia became disconnected from the global payment system in March 2022, organisations were no longer able to receive donations from abroad, which forced many to shut down even before being branded “foreign agents”.

“Foreign agents” were banned from advertising in February, which deprived such organisations of additional income. Help Needed was declared a “foreign agent” in March and by August had ceased its operations entirely, unable to find a way to continue working. Help Needed was not the first charity to have been impacted this way, but its closure was a severe blow nonetheless.

Despite the ongoing crackdown on NGOs, many organisations continue to raise funds and many Russians continue to volunteer. Judging by their incredible resilience, they will continue to do what they can at any cost, but it will get harder and harder for them, and using the resources they currently have available may not be enough for them to survive.

Having aid infrastructure in place is crucial. Large funds like Help Needed efficiently accumulated resources, from information to financial support, and made providing aid cheaper and more accessible to a wider range of people.

Besides, large-scale social projects are able to involve paid professionals such as doctors and psychologists alongside volunteers, and carry out additional checks to filter legitimate calls for help from fraudulent ones. Now, as large organisations are being forced to shut down, many will stop giving, scared that the money will end up in the wrong hands.

And finally, those who help also need support. I have a foster daughter who attended free therapy sessions for two years with an excellent specialist from the Institute for the Development of Family Placement, an NGO whose expenses were covered by a larger fund like Help Needed. The more opportunities a foster family has to access support, the more successfully it will overcome difficulties.

The Russian state has decided to decimate the atmosphere of mutual aid. When you are left alone facing your own problems, you do not have the time or energy to help others.

So far, people have not been abandoned, and volunteers in Russia continue their work.

But I worry about them. I’m afraid that ordinary citizens will once again close their eyes to the suffering of others because they are burdened with their own problems. After all, what’s the point of watching people suffer if you don’t know how to alleviate their pain, if it’s inconvenient and dangerous to donate money, or if it’s unclear how to verify their calls for help?

Exiled Russians often express the opinion that anti-war Russians still in Russia are gradually, almost imperceptibly, becoming accustomed to war and tyranny and making moral compromises.

The destruction of any meaningful charitable aid is a direct goal of Vladimir Putin’s regime. The very idea of a community that helps each other is antithetical to Putin’s Russia. The Kremlin seeks to disconnect people as much as possible to deprive Russians of the opportunity both to help and to accept help. Putin’s stranglehold on power relies upon people being stranded alone and losing their humanity. It is up to us to retain what’s left of it.