The Russian Red Cross revised the borders – Kommersant

The Russian Red Cross (RKK) will begin to provide material assistance – from 5 thousand to 15 thousand rubles – to residents of the Belgorod region evacuated from border villages deep into the region. RKK estimates that 2,000 families can count on payments. Previously, such assistance was provided only to migrants from Ukraine and new Russian territories. If the program in the Belgorod region works successfully, RKK promises to scale it up to other regions bordering Ukraine.

The Russian Red Cross will begin to provide material payments to residents of the Belgorod region, due to hostilities displaced deep into the region. They will range from 5 thousand to 15 thousand rubles. Based on the regional administration’s data, Red Cross experts estimated that 2,000 families (about 5,000 people) would need help. These are, first of all, elderly citizens, families with people with disabilities, large families, single mothers.

So far, the RKK has provided material assistance only to migrants from the territory of Ukraine, the LPR, the DPR, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Payments totaling more than 300 million rubles. received by now almost 92 thousand people. According to Pavel Savchuk, chairman of the RKK, the request for a program to provide material assistance to internally displaced persons came from the population. He called it “a matter of social justice”. At the same time, Mr. Savchuk emphasized, people receive the main support from the authorities: in temporary accommodation they are provided with food, transport, they organize a cultural program, and provide an opportunity for children to receive education. “Our payment is not life-saving in nature, but it will help improve the quality of life a little,” said Pavel Savchuk.

He clarified that in the Belgorod region the project will be “run in a pilot version.” If the experience is recognized as successful, in demand among citizens, and if the resources of the RKK allow, the practice will be scaled up to other border regions, in particular the Kursk and Bryansk regions.

The people affected by the Ukrainian crisis make up about half of all beneficiaries of the RKK: over the past year, the organization has helped 2 million citizens, 1 million of them are IDPs. The organization raised funds to help refugees, helped with the arrangement of temporary accommodation centers, issued vouchers and humanitarian aid to those who live outside temporary accommodation centers. The money (at the end of December, 450 million rubles) was attracted as part of the national collection, and also allocated by international organizations – the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN and other national Red Cross societies.

As a reminder, earlier, after the fire in the Zimnyaya Cherry shopping center in 2018, RKK and its Kemerovo branch were criticized regarding the spending of funds. In particular, as the former chairman of the Kemerovo branch, Elena Malakhova, said, more than 169 million rubles were collected in favor of the victims in the Winter Cherry, and in the six months that have passed since the tragedy, 114,710,388 rubles have been spent. 98 kop. According to her, part of the funds was directed to lump-sum payments to the victims “without explanation”, but Ms. Malakhova did not explain exactly how much money was spent in this way. In addition, more than 50 million rubles. remained in the accounts of the organization. The RKK then checked the work of the Kemerovo branch. According to Pavel Savchuk, the organization received a report on the spending of funds by Kemerovo colleagues. It is posted on the RKK website. However, Mr. Savchuk emphasized, “after analyzing the work, the RKK staff came to the conclusion that it could have been done better in terms of transparency and accountability.” After the audit, during which the RKK was unable to report on the transactions in the special bank account, the ICRC temporarily stopped working with the head office of the RKK and was going to deal directly with the regional offices. In December 2021, RKK underwent a special financial due diligence assessment from the ICRC, which, according to Pavel Savchuk, was successful.

Natalya Kostarnova