Russian Foreign Humanitarian Assistance: Identifying Trends Using 15 Years of Open-Source Data

In: Expeditions with Marine Corps University Press

Abstract

This article explores trends in Russian foreign humanitarian assistance (FHA) during the past 15 years by using open-source data from 40 Russian entities that have reported delivering aid 5,014 times to Georgia, Ukraine, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh. From this data, five key findings about Russia's FHA capabilities emerge, showing that Russian aid is heavily influenced by the state, is symbolic, and is urban-focused; that Russia is unable to conduct more than one significant country response at a time; and that Russia's FHA model is influenced by the context to which Russia is responding.