In March 2022, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of Open Russia**, the ex-owner of Yukos, created an association in Europe called the Anti-War Committee (AK). He was joined by the founder of Euroset Yevgeny Chichvarkin***, philanthropist Boris Zimin****, ex-State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov***** and former employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation****** Lyubov Sobol*******.

AK sets its goals as "confronting the war", and calls Russia's military operation in Ukraine a "crime". The committee promises to help those hiding from mobilization from Russia and refugees from Ukraine: it gives them asylum, helps with work and documents, and provides legal services. A separate division of the AK is engaged in this - the Ark project. It is headed by lawyer Anastasia Burakova. Previously, she ran another of Khodorkovsky's projects, Postcard Advocacy.

The Ark centers are located in Yerevan, Istanbul and Warsaw. The so-called colivings were opened there. This term refers to the place of residence of people connected by common interests.

Guests with an activist background

Who and how gets into such coliving, RT on condition of anonymity was told by one of the candidates for tenants.

According to him, you can live there for free for two weeks, but not everyone is allowed there: you need to fill out a questionnaire and go through an unspoken internal selection.

"Preference is given to people with an activist past - those who participated in rallies, liberal projects and can prove it - for example, decisions on bringing to administrative responsibility," the source explained.

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In the spring of 2022, such a coliving was opened in Kazakhstan, but in February 2023 it was closed. As a source familiar with the situation told RT, the country began to pursue a tougher policy to squeeze out the Russian opposition.

"The Kazakh authorities have made it clear that they do not welcome political activists," the source said. "They will not allow the creation of political clusters for anti-Russian clubs in Astana or Almaty."

Payback for admission

Similar activities are carried out by the organization Reforum Spaces, a subsidiary project of the NGO Free Russia Foundation (FRF) ********.

"The Free Russia Foundation provides support to those who left Russia and Belarus because of their anti-war stance, and to those who left Ukraine and are actively engaged in humanitarian, information and other projects," the FRF website says. "Our Reforum Spaces resource centers provide co-working spaces, event spaces where you can give a lecture or presentation."

The coordinator of the Reforum project on the organization's website is Alexander Solovyov. Previously, he headed Khodorkovsky's Open Russia, was an assistant to former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov.

Reforum Spaces centers operate in four cities: Berlin, Vilnius, Tallinn and Tbilisi. According to the organization's website, a "large Russian-speaking anti-war community" has formed there. Reforum also offers migrants legal support, psychological assistance and employment assistance.

The real goals of these projects are much less peaceful than openly declared. Residents of Reforum and the Ark are actively involved in political work: they participate in rallies at the Russian embassy in Yerevan, march with Ukrainian flags and anti-war slogans, prepare leaflets and write petitions to the court about activists. As the "Verdict" project wrote, those who fled from mobilization are interrogated, and the results of the polls can be transmitted to the intelligence services of other states.

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Bound by a single goal

Both organizations are structurally and financially linked. On June 24, 2022, the Estonian division of Ark announced the merger of its coworking spaces with the Estonian Reforum and the merger of Telegram chats. At the same time, Kovcheg announces Reforum meetings and events in its channels, as it was, for example, with the "meeting of like-minded people in Tbilisi", and marks posts with the hashtag #партнёры.

Recently, on May 25, Reforum announced a meeting in Vilnius with the founder of Open Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Participants were given the opportunity to ask him their questions, but the organizers reserved the right to refuse admission to the meeting without explanation. However, the leaders of the Ark and Reforum projects are people who have been working with the fugitive oligarch for many years.

As mentioned above, Reforum is a subsidiary of the Free Russia Foundation, a Washington-based charity. But, as RT wrote earlier, the Ark is also one of the projects of this foundation.

The FRF's leadership includes Natalia Arnault, who is described in the media as Khodorkovsky's longtime business partner. At the end of May, she became involved in the story of the poisoning of journalists at Khodorkovsky's conference in Berlin.

Arnault is the president of another Washington-based NGO, the Foundation for Democratic Development (FDD). At the same time, in the annual report to the US Internal Revenue Service, FRF directly calls FDD its affiliate.

According to this report, in 2021, the Free Russia Foundation received $2.1 million in revenue, entirely generated from grants and donations. FDD's revenues for 2021 amounted to $915 thousand.

As RT calculated from published reports, in the period from 2019 to 2021, both structures associated with Arno and the Anti-War Committee with Khodorkovsky received an average of $ 2,5 million per year.

The names of donors and grantors to the American FRF and FDD funds are not indicated in the reports, as well as the recipients of funds that are distributed by these funds themselves are not indicated. However, it is mentioned that most of the money received is paid in the form of grants in Russia, the CIS and the Baltic countries.

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However, in all likelihood, one of the addressees may be the "Ark" and Reforum. Firstly, this is supported by the fact that in 2022 the US State Department allocated almost $1 million to the FRF Foundation associated with Khodorkovsky.

"The purpose of the contract is to strengthen the position of activists from the target countries by providing support to preserve the impact potential of activists forced into exile," the grant documents say.

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Secondly, donations in favor of the "Ark" are handled by the Eastern Europe Research Foundation (EERF), registered in Vilnius, at 4-7 Jurgis Savitskis Street. At the same address is Reforum, VšĮ. The head of the latter is the same Natalia Arno.

According to an extract from the register of legal entities in Latvia, in 2022 Reforum received an income of €178.5 thousand. The organization's operating expenses amounted to €177.4 thousand. As of the end of 2022, current assets (cash reserves, receivables, etc.) amounted to €83.5 thousand.

As for EERF, the names of its current directors and owners are not listed in the register. The documents contain only the name of the organization that conducted the initial registration. This is a certain Renata Shcherbakova - a citizen of Lithuania, a native Ukrainian. In her profile on social networks, it is said that she is engaged in recruitment, works in a consulting firm. It is possible that Shcherbakova simply registered the EERF for the real beneficiaries.

According to available reports, in 2021, only €517 passed through the accounts of the Ark's financial manager EERF. The financial statements for 2022 have not yet been published. However, according to the blockchain analyzer Blockchair, from April 2022 to May 2023, $56.1 thousand was received on the organization's bitcoin wallet, and about $2 thousand more came to wallets opened in other cryptocurrencies.

By order of the State Department

In the accompanying documents of the grant, it is no coincidence that the US State Department writes about "preserving the potential impact of activists forced to go into exile." These words are directly reflected in the activities of accountable organizations.

So, on the website of the "Ark" there is a block "Protest in Russia". It presents data from several organizations. In particular, the movement "Otpor!" teaches how to disobey law enforcement officers.

"The goal of the project is to give people clear instructions and scenarios for action at protests in order to protect participants and make the protest effective and successful," the Ark website says. "In their channel, activists tell how to resist the security forces at the protest."

Another association, called Activatika, talks about "acts of civic activism." Another project is aimed at helping those Russians who want to evade conscription or mobilization. They are offered help with the purchase of tickets and even promised to "pave a safe route."

From publications in the community channel in Telegram, it follows that we are talking, among other things, about illegal pedestrian crossing of the Russian border outside checkpoints. The team has a separate crypto wallet, which, according to Blockchair, received $1.34 thousand in a year.

A separate block is propaganda. Under the wing of the "Ark" there is a Telegram channel "Freedom!", which is engaged in "persuading those who support the war."

Most channels have posted links to their social networks on a separate website. They are also actively advertised on its website by Khodorkovsky's "Anti-War Committee", which allows us to conclude that there is a single source of funding.

According to the investigation conducted by the Verdict portal, the personal data of the Ark activists, after questioning, can be transferred to the intelligence services of other states, including the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The other day, there was a new confirmation of this: an investigative project controlled by Khodorkovsky published an announcement about the recruitment of Russian civil servants and law enforcement officers.

An appeal with similar wording previously appeared on the CIA's Telegram channel, which US intelligence had established specifically for contact with Russian citizens. Even the methods of communication coincided, the only difference was that the CIA was interested in Russian military personnel.

The likely rapprochement of Khodorkovsky with foreign intelligence services may become the basis for initiating new criminal cases against him, said lawyer Ilya Remeslo, who is engaged in the search and proof of violations of the law in the opposition environment.

"Here you can see several elements of crimes," the lawyer notes. "From the organization of an extremist community to high treason, which provides for life imprisonment."

In addition, according to him, Khodorkovsky's activities may fall under the recently introduced article 275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - "Confidential cooperation with the special services of foreign states."

"Both members of Khodorkovsky's team and relocators involved in illegal projects can fall under these criminal cases," the source added.

Radical transformation

Since 2020, founder Khodorkovsky, who had previously talked about a "peaceful protest", began to actively promote the idea of a forceful overthrow of the government.

"If anyone hopes that this government can be removed without violence or the threat of violence, then it's time to say goodbye to these hopes," MBH says in one of his videos in 2022.

Khodorkovsky "pushes for a violent scenario of protest" - even the founder of The Bell ********* Elizaveta Osetinskaya, who is loyal to the fugitive oligarch, drew attention to this.

This is confirmed not only by these statements and the financial and legal connection discovered by RT and described above by American charitable foundations affiliated with Khodorkovsky, the US State Department and the structures of the Ark and Reforum Spaces scattered throughout Europe and the former USSR.

On the website of the Free Russia Foundation, an American foundation associated with Khodorkovsky, there is a questionnaire called "Accelerator of Anti-War Initiatives." Anyone can fill it out, including those who are engaged in "anti-war initiatives within the country."

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What these "anti-war initiatives" are can be assumed from the regularly appearing news about sabotage on railway tracks, the launch of drones, and the arson of military registration and enlistment offices. According to the FSB, in the vast majority of cases, these actions were committed at the direction of the special services of Ukraine. And in the case of the death of military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky, the FSB officially stated that the organizers of the terrorist attack in a café in St. Petersburg were the special services of Ukraine and their agents from the Russian opposition.

Questionnaires are also filled out by those applying for the help of the "Ark". Otherwise, applicants cannot count on free and otherwise expensive services - housing, work, legal and medical assistance. Among the questions of the questionnaire is, for example, this: "Have you participated in the activities of political movements and parties? If so, which ones?" There is also a requirement to describe the circumstances and reason for leaving Russia. The applicant for a place in the "Ark" must also provide his full name and links to social networks. In other words, the applicant is in a very vulnerable and dependent on the "benefactors" position.

Not without the help of Khodorkovsky, the radicalization of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Navalny took place. As RT found out in its investigation, the leaders of the FBK declare their independence from big capital only in words, but, judging by the financial documents, not only accept large sums from Khodorkovsky's structures, but also pay people associated with the oligarch for the provision of a number of services.

* Included in the register of individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent, by decision of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated 20/05/2022.

** "Open Russia Civic Movement, Open Russia" is an organization whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of 26/04/2017.

Included in the register of individuals-foreign agents by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 03.06.2022.

Included in the register of individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent, by decision of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated 02.09.2022

Included in the register of individuals-foreign agents by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 10/02/2023.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) is included in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 09.10.2019. The organization is recognized as extremist, its activities are banned by the decision of the Moscow City Court of 09.06.2021.

Included in the register of individuals-foreign agents by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 06.05.2022.

The Free Russia Foundation is an organization whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of 28.07.2019.

The Bell is included in the register of foreign media agents by the decision of 09.12.2022

Included in the register of individuals-foreign agents by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 01.04.2022