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Russia as a Recruited Development Donor

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Abstract

Russia is often included in discussions of emerging donors, but it is an anomalous case whose actual development policies and practices have received little substantive analysis. This article examines internal and external processes that have influenced Russia’s evolving approach to international development assistance in the past decade. I argue that Russia is less an emerging donor than a recruited one, targeted in a concerted effort of capacity-building and consulting by several global agencies. However, while this effort attempted to encompass ‘Russia’ as a unitary entity, it has had differential effects among the great variety of Russian actors from different government ministries who participated in the programmes. The article traces the recent historical development of Russia’s donorship in the context of these capacity-building programmes, focusing in particular on tensions between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the fitful attempts to create a dedicated Russian aid agency.

Abstract

La Russie est souvent incluse dans la discussion sur pays donateurs émergents, mais il s’agit d’un cas unique chez qui les politiques et pratiques de développement ont reçu bien peu d’analyse substantive. Cet article examine les procès internes et externes qui ont influencé l’approche évoluant de la Russie comme donneur d’assistance international de développement. On argumente que la Russie n’est pas vraiment un pays donateur émergent, il est plutôt un pays qui a été recruté a cette pratique, ciblé par plusieurs agences globales de façon coordonnée, pour lui offrir du conseil et construire sa capacité dans ce domaine. Cependant, tandis que ces efforts ont ciblé la « Russie » comme une entité unitaire, ils ont eu des effets très différents parmi la grande variété d’acteurs russes apparentent aux différents ministères qui participent aux programmes. L’article trace l’évolution historique récente de la Russie comme agent donateur dans le contexte de ses programmes de construction de capacité, SE concentrant en particulier sur les tensions entre le Ministère des Finances et le Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, et les tentatives intermittentes de créer une organisation humanitaire Russe.

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Notes

  1. ‘Russian-Ethiopian relations’, document on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17 October 2011, www.mid.ru/bdomp/ns-rafr.nsf/89414576079db559432569d8002421fc/2a113be3c3e58c03c3256fb0002a7470!OpenDocument, accessed 25 April 2014.

  2. The concept of ‘transition’ has by now been thoroughly critiqued for being naively teleological and misleading (see Carothers, 2002; Buyandelgeriyn, 2008).

  3. Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 14 августа 1992 г. N 889 ‘О Российском Агентстве Международного Сотрудничества и Развития’ (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 14 August 1992, No. 889 ‘On the Russian Agency for International Cooperation and Development’); Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 21 июля 1994 г. N 1534 ‘О признании частично утратившим силу пункта 3 указа Президента Российской Федерации от 14 августа 1992 г. N 889 “О Российском Агентстве Международного Сотрудничества и Развития” ’ ’ (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 21 July 1994 No. 1534 ‘On recognizing the partial invalidation of point 3 of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 14 August 1992 No. 889 “On the Russian Agency for International Cooperation and Development” ’).

  4. An English translation of the ‘Concept’ is available at the URL: www.minfin.ru/common/img/uploaded/library/2007/06/concept_eng.pdf, accessed 25 April 2014.

  5. The Ministries of Economic Development, Education and Science, and Health have also played a role.

  6. The original page was last accessed November 2009 at the URL www.dfid.gov.uk/where-we-work/europe/russian-federation/; the page is no longer available, and that URL redirects to www.gov.uk/government/world/Russia, accessed 25 April 2014.

  7. Russia Cares: the First Session of World Bank – DFID Program Advisory Council ‘Russia as a Donor Initiative (RDI)’. http://go.worldbank.org/O3TNN7YRR0. The pages of the ‘Russia as a Donor Initiative’ are no longer visible on the World Bank’s main website; this URL redirects to www.worldbank.org/en/country/Russia, accessed 25 April 2014.

  8. The results of the survey were not released publicly until April 2011.

  9. ‘The Russian Federation ODA National Report’, Russian Ministry of Finance website. www.minfin.ru/common/img/uploaded/library/2012/05/PresentationEng2012-0.pdf, accessed 25 April 2014.

  10. ‘DAC data submitters: data portals and other aid statistics resources’, OECD website, www.oecd.org/dac/stats/dataportals.htm, accessed 25 April 2014.

  11. Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 6 сентября 2008 г. N 1315 ‘О некоторых вопросах государственного управления в области международного сотруд (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 6 September 2008, No. 1315 ‘On some questions of state administration in the sphere of international cooperation’).

  12. ‘UNDP experts shared their experience in international development assistance with Russian government agencies’, www.undp.ru/index.php?iso=ru&lid=1&cmd=news&id=586, accessed 25 April 2014.

  13. ‘Минфин РФ внес в правительство пакет документов о создании Агентства международного развития [ MinFin RF handed over to the administration a packet of documents on the creation of an Agency for international development]’. Press release of 16 May 2012 on the Ministry of Finance website, www1.minfin.ru/ru/press/speech/index.php?id_4=16351, accessed 25 April 2014.

  14. ‘Источник: Агентство международного развития, скорее всего, не будет создано [Source: Agency for international development probably won’t be established]’, Gazeta.ru, 21 June 2012, www.gazeta.ru/business/news/2012/06/21/n_2400853.shtml, accessed 25 April 2014.

  15. ‘Лавров предлагает расширить полномочия Россотрудничества [Lavrov proposes to broaden the authority of Rossotrudnichestvo]’, РИА Новости, 3 September 2012, http://ria.ru/politics/20120903/741828152.html, accessed 25 April 2014.

  16. UNDP Programme in Europe and Central Asia, ‘Emerging Donors Initiative Revisited – Stock Taking and Next Steps’, p. 3. http://europeandcis.undp.org/uploads/public/File/Workshop_final_report(1).doc, accessed 25 April 2014.

  17. ‘Cовещание руководителей представительств Россотрудничества за рубежом [Gathering of heads of offices of Rossotrudnichestvo abroad]’, transcript posted on the website of the Russian government, 3 September 2012, http://archive.government.ru/stens/20531/, accessed 25 April 2014.

  18. In Russian, ‘brand’ is a transliterated loanword: брэнд.

  19. Published as an article in the Russian Government’s Федеральный Справочник, Vol. 26 (2012), pp. 185–94, available at http://federalbook.ru/files/FS/Soderjanie/FS-26/V/Kosachev.pdf, accessed 25 April 2014.

  20. Kosachev’s blog can be found at http://blog.rs.gov.ru, accessed 25 April 2014.

  21. ‘В мире сложилась презумпция виновности России [In the world there is a presumption of Russia’s guilt]’, Коммерсантъ-Online, 3 September 2012, www.kommersant.ru/doc/2014308, accessed 25 April 2014 (translation by the author).

  22. Transcript of Storchak’s interview on the programme ‘Разбор Полета [Flight Analysis]’ on Echo of Moscow, 10 September 2012, http://echo.msk.ru/programs/razbor_poleta/927845-echo/#element-text, accessed 25 April 2014 (translation by the author); Levkin (2012, p. 92, 97), who was a key figure in the UNDP programmes, also argues for a ‘learning-by-doing’ approach for the Russian government’s involvement in project aid.

  23. ‘Путин увеличил бюджет Россотрудничества до 9,5 млрд рублей [Putin increased Rossotrudnichestvo’s budget to 9.5 billion rubles]’, Грани.ру, 5 June 2013, http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/President/m.215342.html, accessed 25 April 2014.

  24. A Russian version of the concept is available at the URL: http://news.kremlin.ru/media/events/files/41d4d539e758feebf03e.pdf, accessed 25 April 2014.

  25. ‘Косачев: РФ выступает за двусторонние, а не многосторонние отношения [Kosachev: Russia opts for bilateral, not multilateral relations]’, RIANovosti, 16 April 2014, http://ria.ru/politic/20140416/1004081987.html, accessed 25 April 2014.

  26. The concept of the ‘mask’ does not imply insincerity of motivations on the part of individuals; the ‘mask’ is a form of standardization worn for the sake of inter-institutional recognizability as well as public appeal.

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Acknowledgements

Research underlying this article was greatly facilitated by research assistants Tatiana Vagramenko, Dmitry Arzyutov, Anna Cherepanova, Anastasia Gulyavena, Katya Kapustina and John Whelan. Several people whom the author consulted on this topic in Russia provided invaluable guidance but wished to remain anonymous. The author is grateful to two anonymous reviewers who provided incisive and extremely helpful comments. Funding was provided by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) under the ‘Futures of Aid’ programme.

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  1. National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Ireland

    Patty A Gray

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Gray, P. Russia as a Recruited Development Donor. Eur J Dev Res 27, 273–288 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2014.34

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