The Russian government replied in kind. In 2006 the Russian Foreign Ministry established the World Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots.62 This central agency coordinates the activities of Russian organisations abroad and their communications with the Russian government. The cultural organisation Russkiy Mir was established in 2007, the political and economic agency Rossotrudnichestvo in 2008, the civil society and NGO-supporting organisation the Gorchakov Fund in 2010, the Foundation for Supporting and Protecting the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad in 2011, and the World Russian Press Foundation in 2014. Another cultural and pro-compatriot organisation, the International Council of Russian Compatriots (originally established in 2002)63 united 140 organisations from 53 countries at the beginning of 2010. A remarkable feature of the Russian GONGOs is their direct connection to the Russian government and the governing United Russia (Единая Россия) party. One figure stands out as the brains behind the concept of Russian soft power and the system of GONGOs. Konstantin Kosachev is the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Federation Council (the upper house of the Russian Parliament) and was chair of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs between 2004 and 2011. Kosachev authored a seminal text, ‘Russian Foreign Policy Vertical’, in 2004.64 In his texts, Kosachev clearly expresses Russia’s discontent with losing its sphere of influence, with NATO’s and the EU’s enlargement, and over the Baltic countries’ policies towards Russian minorities (he even calls them the ‘Baltic apartheid’).65 Kosachev sits on the boards of four GONGOs and, until 2015, was also the head of Rossotrudnichestvo. Since 2004 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has sat on the boards of four GONGOs. Vitaly Ignatenko, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, sits on three boards. Please see below the compositon of the boards of Russian GONGOs.
Composition of the Boards of Russian GONGOs Rossotrudnichestvo Aleksandr Radkov, Deputy Director Liubov Glebova, President (replacing Konstantin Kosachev since 2014) Dmitry Kvitko, Deputy Director 62
A. Chepurin, ‘Approaching the Far Away’, Russia in Global Affairs 3, Foreign Policy Research Foundation (2009). Sputnik News, ‘Council of Russian Compatriots Gains Associated Status at UN’, 19 March 2009. 64 K. Kosachev, ‘Russian Foreign Policy Vertical’, Russia in Global Affairs 3, Foreign Policy Research Foundation (2004). 65 K. Kosachev, ‘A Dictatorship of Incompetence’, Russia in Global Affairs 2, Foreign Policy Research Foundation (2006). 63
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