NGOs and Government: cooperation or rivalry? - a debate with the participation of Elena Nemirovsakya - Russian legend of the third sector and Krzysztof Stanowski from the Solidarity Fund PL. The meeting was chaired by Ernest Zozuń from Polish Radio Programme III.

Cooperation between NGOs and a government is a very popular topic both in Poland and Russia. It is not surprising, given that these entities constitute one of the pillars of civil society and an important tool for building a social capital.

Krzysztof Stanowski during the debate noted that there is a very strong need for cooperation between NGOs and a government, and this is due to both - the Constitution and subsidiarity. This is also an important attribute of a democratic state. - Organisations play an extremely important role in a development cooperation and they are doing it great, however, in Poland there is still a need to strengthen local initiatives.

Elena Nemirovskaya mentioned how the state is arbitrarily limiting the activities of non-governmental initiatives. The law, adopted by the Russian authorities in 2012., requires all NGOs financed from abroad, register as "organisations performing the functions of foreign agents". Consequently, more than a thousand NGOs have been inspected. In such a situation, she was also and the Moscow School of Political Studies, headed by Nemirovskaya, too. - Imperial Russia begins to rebuild itself, which is possible because the Russians have a great sense of pride, want their nation to be great and for this purpose they are willing to endure a lot of suffering.