The “Chesno” movement spent foreign grants on discrediting opponents and influencing courts – media

The public organization “Movement “Chesno” has discredited its opponents and tried to influence the courts using foreign grants. In 2023 alone, it received over 11.3 million hryvnias (260.8 thousand euros) from foreign organizations.

This was reported by Zakon i Business.

According to experts from the publication who analyzed the organization’s expenses, the grant money was spent “on settling scores with opponents and influencing the judicial and law enforcement systems.”

In particular, the funds were used to support projects such as “The Register of Traitors,” “Museum of Agitation and Political Trash,” “PolitHub,” and others. The “Register of Traitors” included the names of people against whom there were no guilty court verdicts for treason or separatism.

“By analyzing the content of the projects, the experts note that, in fact, ‘Chesno’ used money provided by foreign organizations to settle scores with opponents who criticized the activists’ and NGOs’ gross interference in establishing control over and influencing the judicial and law enforcement systems. Thus, foreign organizations effectively funded censorship, personal vendettas, the suppression of dissent, and freedom of speech,” the publication writes.

Earlier, the media reported that the President’s Office intends to take control of grant organizations in Ukraine, whose American funding was frozen by US President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, as part of the decision by the new administration, the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), located in Washington in the Ronald Reagan Building, was closed today. USAID had allocated funds to many NGOs in Ukraine.