Ok, let me clarify some things.
When people make charitable contributions (like I do, and do so quite a bit) they what to know exactly what their money is going into. We look into financial reports of organizations we donate to, we need to make sure the cause is legitimate and benefits many people ( say, if you donate to Wikipedia), as well as coherent with our moral and ethical principals, and the cause is close to our heart ( say, if you know someone with MS and donate to MS research fund). So, donating to a Russian fund might turn out to be a worthwhile cause IF: they prove they are not corrupt, money is used exactly as intended, and the organization is legitimate. NONE of those things could be proven for sure with most Russian charities, unfortunately. The only 'Russian' cause that if trustworthy - is a group of surgeons that goes to Russia, they perform heart surgeries and train russian surgeons to do so. They are based here, and I went to school with the guy who does it..
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Happy New Year to all! Virtual hugs!