The report looks at the influence of NGOs on social and work relations, media development, and the level of citizens’ engagement across the regions. More than a hundred experts and researchers made a contribution to this analytical study. The project sought to investigate the state of civil society in Russia, to describe the main trends in its development and to analyse the role of the third sector. The report will be published and made available to the general public by the end of January 2009.

  According to the researchers, various social projects received about 13.8 billion roubles from private donors. 48% percent of the funding came from Russian citizens themselves, which puts Russian ahead of Czech Republic, China, Germany, Poland, Italy and Greece, but behind Mongolia and Turkey. 56% of the heads of NGOs and 64% of citizens replied “no” to a question as to whether Russia had a developed civil society. But this is a good sign of the obvious need for the development of such a society shared by the citizens.