VZCZCXRO7738
RR RUEHAST RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #2692 2521457
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081457Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9896
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNOSC/OSCE POST COLLECTIVE
RUCNRCC/REFUGEE COORDINATOR COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5197

UNCLAS MOSCOW 002692 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PGOV PHUM RS
SUBJECT: UNHCR WORRIES TRADITIONAL CASELOAD WILL SUFFER DUE 
TO DONORS' CAUCASUS EMPHASIS 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  In a conversation with Refcoord, UNHCR 
Russia's new Deputy Country Representative worried that 
donors' focus on recent displacements in the Caucasus will 
undermine the refugee agency's efforts to provide 
life-sustaining support to its core caseload of urban 
refugees.  He agreed to consider organizing a donor mission, 
suggested by Refcoord to encourage national aid agencies to 
reexamine the needs of forced migrants living in Russia's big 
cities.  End summary. 
 
UNHCR Russia Faces a Lean Season 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Against the backdrop of South Ossetia's 
post-conflict Russian-financed rejuvenation, UNHCR Deputy 
Country Representative Olivier Mouquet on September 4 
enumerated UNHCR financial problems he has encountered since 
arriving in Moscow this summer: 
 
-- The cost of medical services has risen 20 percent in 
Russia in the past year, while strict Russian customs and 
public health and sanitation regulations eliminate 
international procurement as an alternative. 
 
-- The rent on UNHCR's Moscow reception center (which is 
separate from its administrative offices) is scheduled to 
rise 15 percent as of December 1. 
 
-- As of January 1, 2009, the RF will tax all UNHCR grants to 
its implementing partners as though they were income, thus 
decreasing their value by about 20 percent. 
 
-- Across-the-board inflation and the weak dollar further 
diminish the organization's spending power. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Mouquet, whose last post was in Geneva, admits that 
his former colleagues tease him for having gone from 
penny-pinching headquarters suit to anxious field operative 
warning of dire consequences should new funding not become 
available. Back in Geneva, Mouquet had hoped to cut the 
Russia office's urban caseload because it costs a lot of 
money to help relatively few people.  But now, he confessed, 
he could see this would not be so easy, due to incredible 
Russian growth rates and accompanying economic dislocations. 
With little fat left to cut in his agency's assistance to 
mandate refugees and asylum-seekers in Moscow and St. 
Petersburg, Mouquet is considering decreasing the number of 
houses UNHCR constructs for long-term IDPs in Ingushetia. 
Donors tend to focus on the North Caucasus, but the Asians 
and Africans who have fled their homelands to Russia's big 
cities remain the refugee agency's core caseload, Mouquet 
affirmed.  He went on to ask whether PRM would consider 
funding a second JPO for his office this year, primarily to 
assist in reviewing mandate refugees' files for resubmission 
to the FMS for refugee status determination.  (Note:  Any 
long-term asylum seeker that Russia agrees now deserves 
status is one less beneficiary for UNHCR's scarce assistance. 
 End note.) 
 
¶4. (SBU) Refcoord pointed out that UNHCR Moscow has been less 
aggressive in courting donors than other refugee agency 
offices in the region and might benefit from inviting both 
Moscow mission and capital foreign affairs staff to visit 
urban refugees in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and possibly a 
third city (such as Krasnodar or Rostov in the south) to 
witness the dire conditions in which many Afghan, African, 
and Asian forced migrants live.  UNHCR protection and program 
officers could then explain the country conditions that 
stymie integration and suggest interventions for foreign 
funding.  Mouquet appeared not to have considered this 
approach before and said he would take it up with colleagues. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment:  While the plight of Russia's urban 
refugees and the old caseload of Caucasian displaced, who 
continue to live in poverty and uncertainty, has been 
overshadowed by the latest Caucasus crisis, there is a 
continued role for U.S. support in resolving this caseload. 
End comment. 
BEYRLE