Britain Yearly Meeting 2016: Friends House Moscow on Skype link
Sergei Grushko and Natasha Zhuravenkova from Friends House Moscow spoke to Friends at Yearly Meeting via Skype
More than thirty Friends crammed into Drayton Room Four in Friends House on Saturday lunchtime for a Skype link with Sergei Grushko and Natasha Zhuravenkova in Friends House Moscow. The title of the session was ‘Russia is changing: How can we respond?’
Sergei gave those present a half-hour briefing on the work being done translating Quaker literature and on the support, finance and advice that is being given to a variety of different Russian projects.
He explained that Quakers at Friends House in Moscow work in a sensitive situation. They are a ‘limited company’ and thereby avoid legislation that prevents them from receiving foreign money.
Half an hour of questions followed, revealing a fact that is little known in the West – that Russia has amassed a large military force on the Finnish border!
Sergei joked: ‘There’s a satirical Russian proverb: it doesn’t matter what government you vote for – you always get communism!’ He said that Russian Friends use the internet and view foreign news websites. They constantly expand and add new material to the website of Russian Friends: http://quakers.ru
Sergei said the website is easy to find. He explained that their work is greatly valued by users and offers an alternative to the ever-increasing ‘militarisation’ of the population that comes from government control of Russian television and radio news.
