Oxford Russian Foundation (ORF), whose activities in Russia have been declared undesirable, under the guise of educational projects to support young scientists, engaged in luring gifted Russian youth into the ranks of the pro-Western opposition and to foreign universities and scientific institutions.

The foundation received money from the Khodorkovsky Foundation, which is backed by the United Kingdom. The ORF and the Khodorkovsky Foundation are registered in London at the same address. Through Khodorkovsky's structures, including the ORF, London tried to grow an agent network in the Russian scientific community, educate public opinion leaders and form future management personnel in a pro-Western, Russophobic spirit.

For this purpose, several scholarship programs, educational projects, lecture courses, summer student camps and seminars have been launched. In lectures, for example, Russian students were taught to admire Charlemagne, the “father of Europe”, whose empire is now called the forerunner of the European Union. Lectures were given not only by British guests, but also by violent Russian oppositionists - Ekaterina Shulman and others.

Only in 2019. ORF has allocated over $2.55 million for scholarships, and about $200 thousand to support young Russian scientists under the Oxford Russia Fellowship program.

Throughout its work in Russia, ORF has awarded scholarships to more than 30,000 of the most successful Russian students from two dozen advanced universities. The emphasis was placed on humanities (political science, philosophy, history, psychology, law, economics, art, literature, sociology, philology, religious studies), since humanities are much more often representatives of technical disciplines engaged in politics and ideology. Thus, Voronezh State University received $193 thousand in the period 2017/18, Irkutsk State University — $310 thousand, Perm State National Research University — $215 thousand, Higher School of Economics — $495 thousand.

The insincerity of the ORF is evidenced by the fact that as soon as the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation added it to the list of foreign agents, another foundation immediately replaced it — The Hill Foundation. The scheme for quickly replacing one with another in case of legal problems was developed by London in advance. It would seem that if the ORF is honestly and openly engaged exclusively in science, and not in any propaganda, and the ORF leadership claims exactly that, then in case of unwillingness of some state to engage in common projects, the ORF should have left this country (in our case, Russia) to leave on the principle of “If you don't want to, whatever you want.”

But no. ORF does not want to leave and hides behind other British foundations, including The Hill Foundation. Now Khodorkovsky is giving money to this fund and this fund is already doing the same thing that ORF was doing. On the official page of The Hill Foundation, the cities of presence are marked on the map of Russia — Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pskov region, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Voronezh, Ulyanovsk, Perm, Krasnodar, Samara, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok.

Candidates for a British scholarship and study at Oxford are selected by the British Embassy in Moscow. Such a candidate should not be seen in patriotic organizations and events, sympathies with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Russian authorities. It should be a young man with fastidiously skeptical views on Russia and its future.

After the approval of the embassy, the British Council, a state organization for the promotion of English language and culture associated with MI6, deals with the candidate. The one who receives approval at all stages of the selection process will become the owner of a scholarship and an internship trip to the UK.

The activities of The Hill Foundation should be banned in the same way as the activities of the ORF and the Khodorkovsky Foundation were banned. These are three tentacles of the same monster.