Thread by @ABarbashin

.@gavinbwilde asked what I think about the US support for Russian civil society and opposition and whether it helps them or not. Indeed, would it not help US-Russia relations if US stopped its efforts to support "democracy building in Russia"? Thread.

First and by most it is crucial to define what Russian state sees as "foreign interference"- foreign support for election monitoring missions, financing of journalist investigations, support for legal work with politically repressed and imprisoned,financing of libraries that 1/11

do lectures on "freedom loving literature", inviting Russians to speak on certain conferences abroad? This list would definitely be long and ever more confusing and absurd since what is considered "interference" is redefined almost daily: moreover it is not universal, 2/11

what is okay for Sweden to sponsor is not okay for US or UK to support.
If the goal is to make Russia believe US is not longer interested in Russian domestic life, US government would need to ban all support for civil society in Russia and Russian citizens (!) no matter 3/11

where they live and require US private donors do the same; but that would not be enough. You will probably need to stop reacting officially on matters of political life in Russia as well: repressions, human rights violations of all forms.
It may satisfy some folks in Moscow 4/11

but you will still have those that need the US to "do bad things" for propaganda purposes - so they'll probably continue coming up with stuff anyway.
So, maybe you start treating Russia like it is Saudi Arabia.
Real questions though, would Russia be enough? 5/11

How about you then stop supporting civil society of Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan - let the Eurasian Union nations be free! Maybe some other key Russian partners as well? 6/11

BTW, it might make sense, moving in that direction to halt US-funded media that operates in Russian since it is also often viewed as a problem and "interference" - if not a "microphone-shaped gun".
There are plenty of people in Russia who might treat US movies and TV as 7/11

influence operations that promote harmful values and norms - should something be done here?
My point is it is highly unlikely that you could satisfy Kremlin's desire to limit what they consider "foreign interference". Moreover,I do not think that when NY Times quotes Navalny 8/11

this is "support for Russian opposition". Cause if there was foreign money supporting him, they would have definitely found it and we would have had dozens of criminal investigations. Are foreign grants for Memorial an interference in Russia affairs? Again, i don't see it 9/11

Same is the case with US money that is being used to buy condoms to stop the spread of HIV in the country.
Are there any US-based groups that sponsor openly or covertly operations that aim at a violent takeover of power in Russia? If so, please stop immediately.
Otherwise 10/11

I believe the support for civil society, increase of civil society engagement on international level is what helps preventing radical scenarios from taking place; it may or may not help deconfliction right now - but are a smart investment for the future. 11/11