Civil Society Under Russia’s
Foreign Agent Law 

NGO Strategies and Network Transformation
Thursday, March 10, 2022
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (EST)

Virtual Event
This presentation will examine how Russian environmental NGOs and their donors are coping with the foreign agent and undesirable organizations laws that seek to limit their activities. Both laws have disrupted and transformed NGO resource mobilization strategies as well as transnational NGO networks. In this talk, Maria Tysiachniouk will highlight diverse NGO survival strategies adopted in response to the “foreign agent” label and show how the groups navigate tightening legislation. NGOs promoting more sustainable practices for nuclear energy, forestry, and the oil industry will feature as case studies. 

Speaker:
Maria Tysiachniouk holds a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from Bard College, NY, a PhD in Biology from the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a PhD in Sociology from Wageningen University (2012). Throughout her entire career, she has studied the environmental movement in Russia and its transformation. Her specific research interests include global governance through Forest Stewardship Council certification and transnational oil production chains in the Arctic. Tysiachniouk has written more than two hundred fifty publications on topics related to transnational environmental governance, edited several books and has had fieldwork experience in several countries and regions. She is currently chair of the Environmental Sociology group at the Center for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg, and a senior researcher at the University of Eastern Finland.
Moderator:
Robert Orttung is a Research Professor at IERES and the Director of Research for Sustainable GW. He is editor of Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Demokratization and co-editor of the Russian Analytical Digest. His research focuses on issues of urban sustainability in the Arctic.
This event is on the record and open to the media.
The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES)
Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW / Suite 412 / Washington, DC 20052
Tel (202) 994-6340 / Fax (202) 994-5436 / Email ieresgwu@gwu.edu