EMAIL DETAILS

I thought you would be interested in today's *Washington Post* article by
NDI and IRI which takes on the moral equivalency argument between Russian
election meddling and democracy support efforts. Needless to say, I would
welcome your views.

With best regards,

Ken


Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 (Tel)
888-875-2887 (Fax)
email: ken@ndi.org
website: www.ndi.org


Russia’s nefarious meddling is nothing like democracy assistance

[image:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/02/26/Production/Digital/homepage/Images/Par7805164.jpg?uuid=tIx2Ep7zEeO42JRXf_ZrKA]
An Ukrainian flag flutters over Independence Square in Kiev. (Sergei
Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)

By Daniel Twining and Kenneth Wollack April 10 at 6:26 PM

*Daniel Twining is president of the International Republican Institute.
Kenneth Wollack is president of the National Democratic Institute.*

With continued revelations of Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016
U.S. presidential election, a specious narrative has come back into
circulation: that Moscow’s campaign of political warfare is no different
from U.S.-supported democracy assistance.

This narrative is churned out by propaganda outlets such as RT and Sputnik
. Closer to home, it is deployed by isolationists who propound a U.S.
retreat from global leadership. And then there are the authoritarian
apologists, who are as forgiving of repugnant regimes as they are hostile
to America’s historic approach to the world.

The bogeymen usually singled out as moral equivalents of Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s political warfare are democracy-assistance organizations,
including the International Republican Institute <http://www.iri.org/>
(IRI), National Democratic Institute <https://www.ndi.org/> (NDI) and National
Endowment for Democracy <https://www.ned.org/> .


So what is it that our nonpartisan, nonprofit and nongovernmental
organizations actually do — and how is it different from the meddling of
authoritarian powers such as Russia? Here are a few telling examples.

Democracy-assistance groups have worked in the Balkans since the end of the
Yugoslav wars to bridge interethnic divides and foster reconciliation and
democratic cooperation. In contrast, Russia has escalated its efforts to
exacerbate intercommunal tensions and undermine social cohesion in these
young and fragile democracies by backing separatist movements and
ultra-nationalist politicians who incite ethnic hatred.

In post-Soviet states such as Ukraine, IRI and NDI work in support of
efforts by local governments, civic organizations, parliament and political
parties across the spectrum to advance reforms and combat corruption.
Russia, on the other hand, invades and occupies territory and instigates
violence. Its hybrid warfare incites and exploits ethnic, linguistic and
cultural divisions, demonizes marginalized communities and corrodes trust
in democratic institutions.

NDI and IRI are working with civic groups across the Middle East, including
in war-ravaged nations such as Syria and fragile states such as Libya, to
stand up local governing councils that can create oases of stability in
places that otherwise risk exporting violent extremism. Compare that with
Russia’s battlefield support for the Assad regime in Syria, whose
“barrel-bomb” and chemical weapons attacks on its own citizens have
produced the greatest refugee crisis in a generation.

And whereas Russia brazenly attempts to influence election outcomes across
Europe, organizations such as NDI and IRI support a global network of
nonpartisan citizen monitors who care about the integrity, not the results,
of elections in their countries.

In short, while democracy-assistance organizations help partners strengthen
their capacity for self-determination, the Kremlin’s political warfare
operates as a zero-sum game: Using tactics like disinformation,
cyberwarfare and even direct acts of aggression — such as invasion or
assassination — to subvert open societies and increase Russia’s strategic
advantage.

The false equivalency almost always relies on insinuations that U.S.
organizations operate at the directive of the CIA and other U.S. agencies.
This is an outlandish — and for those of us who work in the sector, a
laughable — falsehood.

Moreover, the inability to distinguish between nongovernmental
organizations and governmental action is characteristic of an authoritarian
mind-set, which sees no space for action outside the state. While both IRI
and NDI receive generous support from U.S. government agencies such as the
U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, we work
without the control of government and in accordance with the public-private
partnership that President Reagan and Congress envisioned when our
institutes were established 35 years ago.

This is not to suggest that our work is not grounded in American values and
interests: We are driven by the principles of liberal democracy and
self-determination. Fundamentally, we seek to help foreign countries
strengthen their sovereign autonomy to govern themselves. Rather than
imposing our will on others, we aim to equip our partners with the tools to
build political systems that reflect their own needs. That is what
democracy is all about.

Arguments equating democracy assistance with nefarious meddling almost
always imply a presumption that the countries in which democracy and
governance organizations operate are puppets lacking free will. In fact,
NDI and IRI work openly with a range of stakeholders in countries at
various stages of development in response to specific requests for
assistance. Nor is this solely an American effort. We work with, and
alongside, other democratic governments, intergovernmental and
nongovernmental groups, parliaments and political parties — all part of an
international democratic architecture.

The historical record is clear. The world is safer and more prosperous when
people are free to choose their leaders and fundamental political rights
are respected. Violent extremism is far less likely to incubate in
societies that enjoy responsive and inclusive governance. Citizens who live
in democratic societies do not flee them as desperate migrants.

In short, a more democratic world is a more humane, prosperous and peaceful
place. Democracy-assistance organizations work with our partners on the
ground to help realize that goal. Can authoritarian powers say the same