Moscow, late March 2024: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin is chairing an important meeting. Around the table with him are the members of the board of directors of the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad – "Pravfond" for short. Together, they sign a document outlining how to "actively participate in the implementation of the Russian Federation's state policy towards compatriots abroad in the context of the continuing growth of Russophobic sentiment." The goals it lists include expanding the "network of legal aid for compatriots living abroad," supporting projects to "combat Russophobia," and providing assistance to "Russian NGOs" abroad. The stated objectives are numerous and clear.

The minutes of the meeting are among some 40 internal Pravfond documents obtained by DR, Denmark's public broadcaster, from a source within a European intelligence service, and shared with Le Monde and several European media outlets. They shed light on the workings of this discreet organization operating from the Russian capital, staffed by people who have been identified as former members of the Russian intelligence services, and which has been used to finance operations to benefit Russia and its spies.

On paper, however, Pravfond (which did not respond to requests for comment from the consortium of media partners) could almost pass as a charity. On its website, the foundation describes itself as an organization designed primarily to provide "targeted legal assistance to individual compatriots and human rights organizations." Established in 2012 by a decree from Russian then-president Dmitry Medvedev, its budget is funded by the Russian foreign ministry.

Arms dealer's legal fees

The legal aid provided by Pravfond is indeed "targeted." The accounting documents that Le Monde and its partners have been able to consult show that the bulk of the legal defense budget does not go to individual Russian nationals, but has mainly been used to finance the defense of figures suspected of being Russian spies, or persons of interest to the Kremlin.

In 2014, Pravfond paid $260,000 in legal fees for the defense of Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who, in 2012, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the US for having attempted to sell missiles and rocket launchers to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Bout had, at the time, unsuccessfully appealed his conviction. He was eventually released in 2022 in a prisoner swap for American basketball player Brittney Griner. Bout is now a politician, elected to a local position on the ticket of the LDPR party, an ultranationalist party that supports Vladimir Putin.

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