Russian parliament names Australian-Russian freedom group as ‘undesirable’

An Australia-based Russian community group has been deemed as “undesirable in the Russian Federation” by a parliamentary commission investigating foreign interference in Russia’s affairs, according to a report published by Russia-based InterFax.

Svodoba Alliance NSW president Ilya Fomin at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year. He is seen trying to set fire to his Russian passport. Credit: Steven Siewert

Svoboda Alliance emerged in Australia and New Zealand to protest the February 2021 jailing of Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. Their protests in capital cities took on new life when Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year. Svoboda is Russian for “freedom”.

The alliance holds meetings, maintains Facebook groups and runs letter-writing campaigns directed at Australian and Russian leaders to challenge the Kremlin’s extensive propaganda operations aimed at Russians in the country and abroad. It has chapters in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

“We had a very clear understanding that something like that could happen,” said Galina Seredina, secretary of Svoboda Alliance NSW Inc. “This is a kind of new reality for us.”

“We don’t know if it’s a risk for Svoboda Alliance or for us individuals,” Seredina said. “We don’t want to do any harm to anyone outside of the organisation.”

The alliance has published a lengthy video questioning the activities of the Russian embassy in Australia, called Three Hectares of ZVO in the Land of Kangaroo which discusses the group’s concerns about propaganda found on the embassy’s websites, among other issues.

Vasily Piskarev, head of the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of foreign interference, is quoted in InterFax as saying: “It is proposed to recognise their activities as undesirable, and some as extremist”.

In addition to challenging the Kremlin’s rationale and narratives for the invasion of Ukraine, the alliance has been fundraising for Ukraine’s humanitarian effort since the war began.

“We want this war to end as soon as possible, and all Western countries to support Ukraine,” said the alliance’s NSW president, Ilya Fomin.

“A fight for human rights and democracy instead of Putin’s totalitarian regime in Russia will be the next imminent step, also to ensure such a tragedy can’t happen again.”

The group said it has sent more than three tonnes of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, including surgical instruments, gowns, hygiene and healthcare products, with some directly to the city of Kharkiv. The group says it was instrumental in getting Australian media outlets like SBS to drop state-backed Russian patriotic networks.

A spokesperson for the Russian embassy called the Svoboda Alliance “a tiny but vocal group striving to push an anti-Russian agenda in Australia”.

If the Svoboda Alliance “is indeed designated as an undesirable foreign organisation under Russian legislation, the embassy will most likely provide the information on what it entails,” the spokesperson said.

The legislation advancing in the Duma, names Svoboda Alliance as one among 30 NGOs from 16 “unfriendly” countries, including the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association in Lithuania, the Human Rights House Foundation in Norway, the Demokrati-Ja movement in Germany, the Free Russia NL community in the Netherlands, and the Danish Friends of a Democratic Russia.

The far-flung organisations also include RUHelp — Russians Against the War in Luxembourg, Lithuania, and The Ark project in multiple nations.

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