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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dmitri Glinsky, President & CEO of Russian-speaking Community Council (RCC)
5:37:57
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3 min
Dmitri Glinsky, representing the Russian-speaking Community Council (RCC), testified about the challenges faced by Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in New York City, highlighting the lack of funding for their community-based organizations despite significant population growth. He called for more equitable distribution of resources and support for refugees from dictatorships.
- Emphasized the disparate impact of the current funding system on Russian-speaking CBOs, despite Russian being the third largest linguistic minority in NYC
- Highlighted the influx of Ukrainian and Russian refugees fleeing military invasion and political repression
- Called for increased funding for targeted legal services and a special response initiative for refugees from dictatorships
Dmitri Glinsky
5:37:57
Thank you, chair Aviles, and thank you city council for your system of public testimonies, which is about the only platform at any level of government where a voice from my community can be heard on a par with others in any language, which is immigrantes.
5:38:11
I'm Dmitry Glinsky, the Russian speaking council that I co founded in 2011 as a CBO for refugees and de facto refugees from ex Soviet countries, serving them and thus our city mainly through advocacy organizing and countering hate with anti war dialogue of Ukrainians and Russians since 02/2014.
5:38:28
From time to time with pro bono immigration services, including years ago, thanks to this council awards.
5:38:34
With case management material aid on the New York State program until last year, Know Your Rights trainings, Hoisting Moyers English classes, and in other ways.
5:38:42
I could add a lot to what others say on the urgency of vital services hanging on life support under this mayor.
5:38:47
But they keep coming here to remind of an issue that you won't hear from others.
5:38:52
It is the disparate impact of the current funding system for our CBOs or as some would say, a glaring lack of the much needed equity and inclusion.
5:39:00
Russian is the third linguistic largest linguistic minority in our city, over 2% of its population.
5:39:06
Ukrainian speakers have also grown in numbers.
5:39:08
Just in the past three years, tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians fled here for military invasion or from reprises for protesting it or from mobilization into the invasion army.
5:39:18
Yet unlike smaller and equally deserving diasporas, you will barely find a five k for their CBOs in schedule c year after year and never an award that would cover a lawyer's or any staff's salary.
5:39:30
And it's just the same with private foundations, except you don't have public hearings.
5:39:36
And this keeps our hardworking CBOs without regular staff, which in turn is used to deny funding due to low capacity.
5:39:43
And this leads to further discrimination as I keep hearing even today from messages from my contacts still living in the Roosevelt Hotel.
5:39:51
And all this happens at the time when the Trump administration has paused all applications by Ukrainian parolees who have no homes to return to, while Russians who came legally via CBP one are kept in remote detention centers for many months, at times even after winning asylum.
5:40:06
Note that their oppressors back home have powerful partners, business partners right here represented on the boards of some of the key philanthropists and even up to the commissioner level in city hall.
5:40:20
They use their cloud to prevent those who fled from them from succeeding, let alone getting funded to serve others.
5:40:26
And they've been greatly emboldened by the Trump administration.
5:40:29
I call upon those in our council who want to have strategic allies in defending our democracy and the rule of law to support refugees and the fact refugees from our countries by funding more targeted legal services through our own and other CBOs.
5:40:43
And I also urge you, Andrew speaker Adams, to go further and consider a special response initiative for refugees and exiles from dictatorships from Venezuela to Russia and all those in between, aiming to provide them with a community home and a public platform as a counterweight to their oppressors who are busy corrupting our system.
5:41:02
We at RCC are open to partnerships as we go through the second decade of our advocacy for our people at this council hearings.
5:41:09
Thank you for your attention.
Alexa Avilés
5:41:10
Thank you so much, Dimitri.