Nationalists get half of youth organizations’ budget from MinCult

Illustrative photo from open sources

On January 28, 2020, at a meeting of the competitive commission of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, a list of projects of youth and children's public organizations was approved that will receive financial support from the state this year. Out of the provided UAH 20 million budget funds, almost half was allocated in favor of nationalist organizations, including ultra-right radicals, reports Strana.

The money was distributed among 165 projects of youth and children's organizations in Ukraine. According to the approved list, which has already been published on the website of the Ministry of Culture, a total of about UAH 8 million has been allocated to national-patriotic organizations, which is almost half of the total. Now the Order has to be signed by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Vladimir Borodiansky.

In particular, the publication notes, as a result of the contest, budget funds went to the legal entity from the pool of ultra-right “S14” group – “Educational Assembly” organization (co-founder – head of S14 Evgeny Karas – Ed. note). S14’s ally National Center for Human Rights, led by Denis Polishchuk, who is accused of the murder of writer and journalist Oles Buzina, is in line for funding. In the ranking of projects, it took 83rd place, but the amount of project financing has not yet been specified. Projects from other nationalist organizations were also funded. Among the most famous are: SUM (Union of Ukrainian Youth) in Ukraine, "Young People's Movement", "Youth Nationalist Congress", "Falcon of Freedom", etc."

The authors of the news emphasized that these organizations and those close to them had already received state funding from the Ministry of Culture in terms of ideology and political orientation, including in the framework of the contest of national-patriotic educational projects for 2020.

The outlet also drew attention to the fact that the remainder of the budget funding was received by organizations, “some of which are headed or connected with officials and parliamentarians.”

“For example, the organization “Conscience and Hope of Ukraine” (headed by MP Vladimir Kreidenko, “Servant of the People” party),“ National Alliance ”(founder – MP Igor Guz, previously a member of the Popular Front). Moreover, many of these organizations or their affiliates already receive state money under the national-patriotic education article, as well as directly from the state and local budgets for their activities,” the publication said.

It is noted that the participating organizations have a week to challenge the results. A number of organizations are known to be preparing relevant requests for reviewing the results of this competition, since they believe that it was ideologically biased and conducted in violation of the law.

As reported by the UOJ, the Ministry of Culture previously published a draft law on disinformation, which introduces a media confidence index, criminal liability for journalists and the possibility of blocking sites.

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