Today, the Russian authorities declared us "undesirable" in Russia. This is yet another attempt to isolate and intimidate Russian civil society, to break the ties between activists, media and the civil societies in Germany and Russia.

As of today, Dekabristen e.V. has been forced to stop cooperating with organizations and other stakeholders in Russia. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian war in Ukraine, we have transformed some of our projects. We no longer hold events, transfer money, or develop new programs in Russia. We concentrated on helping refugees, collecting money and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and continued to work with our partners from Eastern Europe, the North and South Caucasus, and Central Asia. At the same time, we actively help Belarusian and Russian journalists who oppose Russia's military aggression and have been forced to leave their countries because of censorship and persecution. We have spoken openly and will continue to speak out about the war and condemn Russia's aggression and war crimes.

Our organization was founded in 2012 in Berlin with the aim of supporting civil society, defending human rights and developing cooperation between Germany and Eastern Europe. The founders of the organization met each other a year before, in 2011, at a rally in Berlin against election fraud in Russia. It was the first big protest action by German civil society and the Russian opposition in Berlin.

Since 2014, we have consistently spoken out against the annexation of Crimea and Putin's neo-imperialist war in Ukraine. Since 2015, we have conducted dozens of educational exchange and support programs in the fields of civic education, media, critical art, and queer feminism, contributing to the defense of the constitutional rights of Russian citizens. Since the start of the pandemic, and especially after the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine, our activity in Russia has stopped. First, we moved our work into the digital space, and then, together with partner organizations, we relocated our activities to other countries. We continue to work with civil society and activists in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and other countries, which were or are affected by Russian state aggression.

Even though Dekabristen e.V. is now forced to stop cooperating with Russian stakeholders, no one can stop our colleagues from continuing the resistance against Putin's criminal regime and the restoration of the totalitarian empire.

We appeal to all our partners and associates who are now in Russia to cancel their cooperation agreements, suspend their work with us, not to use our publications and not to transfer donations to us. If you are in Germany, or another country, we will be happy to receive your donation via PayPal or transfer to Dekabristen e.V., DE20 12030000 1020168561 with the reference “Save Ukraine”. We will transfer all the donations received to our partner organizations in Ukraine.