MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has allocated significant spending power to Rossotrudnichestvo, Moscow’s vehicle for promoting its influence abroad, as part of an apparent drive to improve the country’s image, according to a decree published on the government’s website Wednesday.
Federal money has been redirected from the Foreign Ministry, formerly responsible for the financial support of Russians living abroad, to Rossotrudnichestvo, which was created in 2008 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev as a means to advance Russia’s political and economic interests.
“Rossotrudnichestvo [will be responsible] for events organizing the collaboration and solidarity of Russians abroad, and providing for their educational, cultural and other humanitarian needs,” the decree reads.
The amount of money now available to Rossotrudnichestvo was not made clear. But President Vladimir Putin has signed an order increasing the annual budget for Rossotrudnichestvo – officially known as the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation – from 2 billion rubles ($60 million) to 9.5 billion rubles ($300 million) by 2020, the Kommersant newspaper reported earlier this year.
While the amounts of money that Russia commits to foreign aid, and support of Russian cultural programs abroad, is dwarfed by that committed by other countries, including the United States and China, Moscow has recently been looking to ramp up its soft power presence.
Rossotrudnichestvo is being overhauled, its head Konstantin Kosachyov told Kommersant last month. Kosachyov, the State Duma’s longstanding Foreign Policy Committee chairman, was appointed to lead the agency in spring 2012.
Centers for the promotion of Russian culture and language will be set up in countries of the former Soviet Union, European countries, and in Cuba and China, Alexei Levchinko, assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, said Wednesday.
The cultural center project has a budget of 1.5 billion rubles ($45 million) in 2013, according to Levchinko, and will be coordinated through a special committee chaired by Golodets with representatives from the Foreign Ministry, Education Ministry, Culture Ministry and Rossotrudnichestvo.
