Hi everyone!

So, oDR – openDemocracy’s Ukraine, Russia and wider region team – is at severe risk of closure.

What can I say apart from the fundraising has not been lucky, to put it mildly.

But we’re fighting: a huge last-ditch effort to turn the ship around and keep some of the best journalists, researchers and activists writing for our audience.

To do that, we’ve launched a crowdfunder to help match £50,000 we’ve already raised from private donors. This will buy us time to sort the long-term financing we need.

I’m not sure if folks want to hear about why we’re important, so I’ll be brief:

– Ukrainian journalists writing about Russia’s war

– Belarusian journalists writing about Russia’s war

– And Russian journalists writing about Russia’s war

And that’s aside from our brilliant collaborators in Central and South Caucasus.

So please help us spread the word, and help us keep fighting. There are so many important causes right now, so if you can’t afford – just push this on to people who can.

Source: Tom Rowley (Facebook), 28 June 2023. I just made a donation to oDR’s crowdfunder via PayPal, and I would urge you to do the same. ||| TRR

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Dear readers,

openDemocracy’s dedicated coverage of Russia and Ukraine is one of our greatest achievements. But now, the team behind that work is under threat of closure. 

The two of us helped to found openDemocracy in 2001 to make a space for a global conversation about justice, human rights and democracy and how they are threatened by unaccountable power. Today, at its core is our project on Russia, Ukraine and the wider region. 

The project provides an irreplaceable space for voices from the region that do not represent official Ukrainian, Russian, European or American interests.  

• It gives prominence to Ukrainian journalists reporting Russia’s invasion and its brutalities, alongside threats to economic rights, social welfare and independent journalism
• It provides an extremely valuable platform for coverage of Russia from Russian journalists and writers in Russian as well as English
• It publishes Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians who are fighting for democracy alongside one another, creating a framework for analysis and exchange that is unique during the pain of Russia’s war
• And because, thanks to openDemocracy, the coverage is translated into Spanish and Portuguese without a paywall, readers across Latin America can learn directly about the experience of what is unfolding 

With three million readers annually, and a world-wide reputation, the coverage, grouped together here, is needed more than ever. 

It is put together by a small team. Focusing on publishing original, vital, stories on the impact of the Ukraine invasion, whilst keeping everyone secure from the consequences of war as well as Covid, means they have struggled to raise the vital funding essential to survival. 

We have to reignite funding fast – very fast. In fact, immediately. 

Or the brilliant team – Katia, Tom, Valeria, Polina and Tanya – will be made redundant. 

We are doing everything we can to secure, enhance and deepen their work.

Please join us. 

We have already secured match-funding of £50,000 from private donors. Now we urgently need your help to unlock this money. Every £10, €10 or $10 you donate will be matched. 

£100,000 will give us the time to negotiate with foundations to ensure this project enjoys a long life – long-enough to outlast Putin! 

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, John le Carré was furious and headed a funding campaign for openDemocracy: 

Let’s support openDemocracy to the hilt. Intelligent, unbought, unspun opinion, uncomfortable but necessary truths and a lot of good horsey argument: heaven knows they are in short enough supply!

We love the ‘horsey’. A master of words, le Carré appreciated that some of our articles are untamed. But that’s because they are unbought and unspun.

Never, ever, has there been a greater need for this than now with respect to Ukraine and Russia. Please help the team publish necessary truths, on-the-ground reporting, much needed level-headed debate, and even good horsey argument, so that the irreplaceable media space they have created survives and grows.

So please, send us £50, €50 or $50 or more if you can; £/€/$25 if that’s possible; or whatever you can. Every donation will be gratefully received.

Thank you, 

Anthony Barnett & Susan Richards

Source: openDemocracy. I just made a donation to oDR’s crowdfunder via PayPal, and I would urge you to do the same. ||| TRR