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West-financed NGOs seeking to destabilize situation in post-Soviet countries — diplomat

"Financial support is rendered to various extremist, political, and religious organizations," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova Mikhail Tereshchenko/ TASS
Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova
© Mikhail Tereshchenko/ TASS

MOSCOW, February 29. /TASS/. The West-financed non-governmental organizations are destabilizing the situation in post-Soviet countries seeking to create a "belt of instability" around Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Every year, the West allocates billions of dollars and euro to finance NGOs and media in Russia and other post-Soviet countries. In 2020, more than 2,000 NGOs and media outlets operated in the CIS countries on this money. Obviously, you know their agenda," she said at the second congress of the International Movement of Russophiles.

"The result of their so-called work is inevitable destabilization of the socio-political and economic situation in these countries, which creates the so-called belt of instability around Russia," she said.

Such efforts, in her words, are geared toward "discrediting the regimes, governments and political forces in countries, which conduct an independent domestic and foreign policy, promoting their own political and moral values without taking into account the level of the development of political institutions, cultural and religious traditions and values in these countries." "Financial support is rendered to various extremist, political, and religious organizations," she added.