The New York Times quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on Russia’s tacit support of a fundraising network which provides for the separatists fighting in Eastern Ukraine:
The head of Russia’s Federal Service for Financial Monitoring, Yuri A. Chikhanchin, for instance, recently told Mr. Putin that his agency had frozen 3,500 bank accounts suspected of supporting terrorist organizations. The fighters in eastern Ukraine, however, are not among the groups Russia has designated as unlawful.
“Anyone in Russia who wants to provide assistance to the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR) and the People’s Republic of Luhansk (LPR) is encouraged by and gets support from the Russian government,” said John E. Herbst, a former American ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council in Washington.