Red Cross decides not to suspend Russian branch despite links to Kremlin

The International Red Cross Movement has decided not to suspend the membership of the Russian Red Cross, despite potential violations of the rules of neutrality revealed by an investigation conducted by a group of international media outlets.

Source: The Guardian

Details: The investigation revealed numerous violations of the Red Cross charter by the Russian organisation since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the umbrella organisation for national societies, has the right to suspend the membership of those who violate the principles of neutrality and independence of the Red Cross, and it did so against the Belarusian branch last year.

However, after a four-day meeting of IFRC representatives in Geneva, it was decided not to suspend the Russian Red Cross, but only to create an oversight body and ask it to "address the identified problems and alleged violations" of the principles of integrity.

The investigation, published last month by a group of news outlets, including the Guardian, was partly based on a series of leaked Kremlin documents that revealed plans to fund Red Cross branches in occupied Ukrainian territory.

It also revealed that the heads of regional Red Cross branches spoke of the need for a war against "Ukrainian Nazis" and that uniformed Red Cross workers often attended military training events for children.

Earlier this year, the Russian Red Cross signed a memorandum of cooperation with Artek, a youth camp in annexed Crimea where some of the children deported from Ukraine were sent. Konstantin Fedorenko, the head of Artek, is subject to US and EU sanctions.

Background: 

• Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliamentary) Commissioner for Human Rights, has accused the International Federation of the Red Cross of "turning into an advocate for Russian criminals".
• T he IFRC suspended the activities of the Belarusian Red Cross last year after it became known that its chairman had worn the letter Z [a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine] and expressed support for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

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