Murmansk journalists have lately become suspicious towards the regional administration and its connections to the American organization National Democratic Institute (NDI), Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports. Local media have written that the regional administration actively cooperates with the NDI, an organization financed by the US Congress. NDI has been involved in different “orange revolutions” in former Soviet states and has particularly been active in Georgia and Ukraine.
Newspapers and news web sites in Murmansk have told about certain members of the regional government and their cooperation with the NDI representative in Murmansk Oblast, Timur Kurbanov, in connection with the elections for the Mayor of Murmansk in March 2009.
Mr. Kurbanov supposedly has suggested arranging a conference where Russian, European and American experts should share their experience on electoral monitoring on election day. Murmansk media also accuses NDI for arranging a seminar where local politicians were instructed on how to conduct the election campaign.
Murmansk Oblast Deputy Governor Sergey Subbotin, a candidate to the post of Mayor of Murmansk, held a press conference to oppose the media’s talk about the regional administration’s cooperation with the American nongovernmental organization.
Subbotin claims that the regional government’s actions were approved by “every instance” and not illegal in any way. As a former Federal Security Service employee, Subbotin tried to explain that the association with NDI was a cover for a planned action on ideological diversion. The regional government supposedly recruited reliable and trusted people to participate at the NDI seminar. The Deputy Governor told the press that Governor Yury Yevdokimov in person reported to the president’s administration about the operation.
When this information reached the Murmansk Oblast Federal Inspector Vladimir Losev, he declared that the connection with NDI is no more than a local initative, and had never been asked for approvement from the president’s administration.
The National Democratic Institute is, according to Wikipedia, an organization created by the United States government by way of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to channel grants for furthering democracy in developing nations. NDI is loosely associated with the Democratic Party of the United States and maintains ties with the Liberal International, Socialist International, and the Centrist Democrat International (formerly Christian Democrats). However, NDI’s programs are nonpartisan, and it works with various democratic and non-violent political parties and civic groups.
The National Democratic Institute website here
