The twenties of the new century became a troubled time: the final establishment of dictatorships in Russia and Belarus, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the rise of populism… Millions of people became victims of the new and cruel reality: they became refugees, forced to fight against invaders, became political prisoners or captives. One of the first victims was the truth – after all, dictatorships and wars are impossible without large-scale propaganda and disinformation campaigns with million-dollar budgets.

The non-profit organization MTÜ SupportNet was founded in 2020 as a response to the challenges of the new time. From the very beginning, our tasks were to support independent journalism, help civil society in confronting dictatorship and lawlessness, and provide support to people who became victims of violence and war. The founders of our organization were the famous Russian activist, winner of the Woman of Courage and Goldman Environmental Prize awards, Yevgenia Chirikova, and the outstanding Estonian human rights activist, Director of Open Estonia Foundation Mall Hellam. Thanks to SupportNet, we were able to organize support for the work of the Activatica media project, dedicated to civil activism in Russia, and also help dozens of Russian activists who faced repression.

In the first months of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, we were able, together with a network of activists and organizations in different countries, to cope with the extremely challenging task – to organize the evacuation of thousands of Ukrainian civilians from the temporarily occupied territories through Russia to safe countries. We were able to support a unique project of Ukrainian traumatologists and Russian doctors Andrey Volna and Vera Volna to restore the limbs of Ukrainians suffering from landmine blast wounds. Thanks to our support, the doctors were able to restore the limbs of people and avoid amputations. Unfortunately, anti-personnel mines have become a real curse for Ukraine and will continue to maim people for many years to come – that is why we continue to work with Andriy Volna’s team.

SupportNet continues to help war refugees from Ukraine. One of the most vulnerable categories of them are children who find themselves in foreign countries, often with only one adult relative. We support the work of the CSO center for Ukrainian children in Tallinn, founded by the famous activist Alexandra Rossiykina. The center also provides work for adult educators from among Ukrainian refugees.

The information project Activatica, with our support, continues to raise “forbidden” topics. We have managed to break the information blockade around Russian volunteers fighting against Putin’s army as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Our videos about the realities of war, the absurdity of propaganda, and the fate of Russian political prisoners collect millions of views, including in Russia. Now Activatica is drawing attention to another hot topic: the system of terror deployed in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Our task is to remind the public and politicians that we are not talking about abstract territories, but about thousands of people whose lives are now under threat of imprisonment, torture, and death.

The name of our organization SupportNet means “supporting network”. These are not just words – we do not have stable funding from the state or any one rich sponsor helping to solve all the problems. Everything that we manage to do is due to the combined efforts of a network of different people: activists, journalists, human rights defenders. And, of course, those who help their common work with their money, and we are grateful for all of them for all the support!

The list of initiatives in need of support can be found on the main page.

Do you have any questions? Write to us at inbox@supportnet.ee