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Moscow, Russia
Nurturing the development of democratic institutions in Russia through applied research, advising government, and testing new ideas
INDEM stands for “Information Science for Democracy.” INDEM was founded in 1990—one of the first NGOs to take form in Russia near the end of the Soviet Union. It is headed by its founding director, Georgi Satarov, formerly general director of the Russian Public Policy Center and, before that, advisor to President Yeltsin. INDEM frequently advises government officials as they struggle to improve public policy and increasingly works with them to test actual solutions to problems in the administration of public services.
In 2006, INDEM published a seminal report on corruption in Russia. The preliminary results of this study gained international attention when INDEM reported that the total value of bribes paid in Russia may have risen ten-fold over the last four years. INDEM is also producing a study of the problems facing the courts in Russia and a separate study on new approaches to the governance of police at the regional (rather than national level).
INDEM works broadly, addressing issues that range from fair elections to pre-trial detention. Current projects are focused on revealing the nature and extent of corruption throughout Russia based on in-depth interviews with people who have decision-making power. The project will map corruption across the Russian Federation and show how it varies by region. Additionally, INDEM is also developing a unique way to generate numerical indicators of justice by quantifying the knowledge of experts.
In 2000, INDEM deepened its focus on the administration of criminal justice by creating the Center for Justice Assistance (CJA), which is now a permanent part of INDEM. CJA’s current projects include First Contact, which aims to improve relations between police and residents in the city of Nizhny Novgorod largely by making it easier and more pleasant for people to report crime and seek other help from police.
More recently, CJA launched a project in Moscow to educate incarcerated adolescents about crucial support services in their home communities they can access after release in a way that makes those programs, and the process of seeking help, appeal to teenagers. The project evolved from a study about problems teenagers face as they move from the penal system back into their community. For a summary of this and other publications by INDEM, visit the Publications section of this web site.
For more information about INDEM, visit the organization’s web site.
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