Now that Maria Gaidar is Odessa's deputy governor, her nonprofit back in Russia has lost its Kremlin grant

Odessa's new deputy governor, Maria Gaidar, a Russian opposition activist, has resigned as head of the social organization Sotsialny Zapros (“Social Demand”). The organization has also declined a presidential grant worth 2.8 million rubles ($49,000), which it won in 2015.

The new head of the organization will be named at a later date.

Earlier, Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova announced that a committee would review the results of the grant competition, in light of Gaidar’s decision work as a public official in Ukraine. Pamfilova criticized Gaidar’s new position, noting, “in this situation, it would be absurd to leave Maria Gaidar and her foundation Sotsialny Zapros as winners [of the grant competition].”

According to Kommersant’s information, on Friday, [July 17], as soon as the nomination of Ms. Gaidar became known, her foundation opted to decline the presidential grant.

Maria Gaidar is the founder and until recently the head of the social welfare organization Sotsialny Zapros. The presidential grant it won earlier this year was for a project called “Center for Civic Journalism,” which was supposed to create an online news source and a series of workshops to train journalists who cover civil-society issues.

Gaidar was appointed deputy governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region on July 17. She will be working under Governor Mikhail Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia (2004-2013). She will be responsible for the region's social policy.

Gaidar is a Russian opposition activist and daughter of former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, who was famous for spearheading the country's post-Soviet "shock-therapy" transition to capitalism. She became famous for her participation in a series of anti-government protests in the mid-2000s.

From December 2012 to November 2013, Maria Gaidar worked as a social affairs aide to Moscow Deputy Mayor Leonid Pechatnikov. Earlier, she served as deputy governor of Russia’s Kirov region under Nikita Belykh. Her foundation, Sotsialny Zapros, received presidential grants for its human rights activities on two occasions, including this year.