It is a universally accepted truth that the interest for external political problems in Russia has been consistently declining, anti-western moods – rising, and professionalism of independent expertise regarding international problems has been remaining the same, at best. Likewise, it may be argued that the interest for Russia in the west has been rapidly declining and hostility – growing. The traditional expert community that grew out of the soviet past and today deals with current Russian problems is rapidly shrinking and losing its prestige and influence, while the new professional environment evolves very slowly and not always adequately. Lately, we have been witnessing conspicuous chilling of the relations between Russia and its principal western partners, while the potential of possible positive collaboration is largely underused.
There are also serious problems in the sphere of international relations of Russian civil society institutions. Despite the broad network of international partners and adherence to international operation standards, it is far too soon to speak about Russia’s organic integration into the global civil society. Old methods, such as traditional exchanges, conferences, seminars, and technical assistance programs demonstrate their insufficiency and often their low efficiency. Still, there is no evident replacement for them.

To address the abovementioned issues the New Eurasia Foundation implements programs designed to:
• Facilitate Russia’s integration into the global community and maintain a constructive dialogue between Russia and its principal international partners;
• Create an effective model of international collaboration among civil society institutions that is applicable to various professional groups and could be used to address diverse issues;
• Create conditions required to implement large-scale international projects within the social sphere.

• “National security and civil freedoms: the price of the compromise” project;
• “Russian transformations within the context of global development” project;
• Russian Northwest development program: a joint initiative of the New Eurasia Foundation, the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, and the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  

A Joint initiative of The New Eurasia Foundation, The Norwegian Barents Secretariat, and The Norway Ministry Of Foreign Affairs.

This initiative provided Russian and Polish organizations working to address similar issues with a unique opportunity to establish mutually beneficial relations within three program areas: mobilization of local communities, small business development, and support of migrants and refugees.  Thus, as a result of the seminar and internships a number of proposals were jointly designed by Polish and Russian organizations four of which were supported under the “East – East: Partnership without borders” program. These projects will promote mutually beneficial international collaboration through the support of NGO resource centers, facilitation of implementation of the educational component of the judicial reform concerning juvenile citizens, as well as support of small business development in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland.