Civic-mandate infrastructure for the Russian diaspora

From followers
to standing.

650,000 Russians left after 22.02.2022. Most cannot vote where they live, and no one can prove who they speak for. Quorum fixes the second half.

See how it works →
650K+
Russians abroad post-2022
0
Verified individual mandates today
eIDAS
Legal effect = wet signature
Q4 '26
Pilot target: 1,000 mandates
01 / The problem

Three concentric circles of voicelessness.

A Russian who left after the war started has no working channel for representation — at home, in their host country, or in international institutions.

01

No vote at home

Foreign polling stations have been thinned, identification gated, and prosecutions for "discrediting the army" make participation costly.

02

No vote abroad

Local elections are gated to citizens (or EU citizens). You pay VAT, hire, rent, research — and your local MP has zero structural reason to care.

03

No verified representation

Yashin, the Anti-War Committee, FBK successors — speak from personal stature and Telegram reach. A Bundestag committee cannot lawfully count followers.

To unite for the sake of uniting is a mistake. Coordinate by specific campaigns — yes; unite — no.

Leonid Volkov — Meduza interview, on diaspora opposition strategy

02 / The solution

A thin mandate layer everyone can plug into.

Quorum is a four-layer civic-mandate utility built from existing online services. No new technology is required — only the discipline of using it correctly.

/01
Legal wrapper

A UK Company Limited by Guarantee as the operating hub. A German e.V. paired (advocacy + research) when the Berlin/Brussels chapter is ready. US 501(c)(4)/c(3) only when the US workstream is material.

  • UK CLG — no political-purpose bar (unlike CIC); not bound by Charity Commission CC9 limits
  • DE non-gem. e.V. + paired gem. e.V. — post-Attac BFH compliance
  • Federation by agreement — not subsidiary — to insulate national entities
/02
Identity & sanctions

Each principal is a real, sanctions-clean person. Passport + liveness, ICAO 9303 NFC where possible. No raw KYC data leaves the EU. Ever.

  • Sumsub or Veriff — admit Russian passports
  • ComplyAdvantage — UK OFSI / EU 269/2014 / OFAC SDN screening
  • Storage: Frankfurt primary (EU), Switzerland secondary (FADP). Never Russia. Never US.
/03
Civic Special Power of Attorney (cSPA)

A narrow, time-limited, revocable mandate. Authorises specific advocacy acts only. Signed by Qualified Electronic Signature under eIDAS — same legal effect as a wet signature in all 27 EU member states.

  • Scope enumerated: letters, complaints, petitions, public submissions, amicus participation
  • Excluded: voting, financial authority, contracting, sub-delegation
  • One-click revocation, propagated to public verification endpoint
  • Signature tiers: SES → AES → QES (Namirial / InfoCert / Evrotrust)
/04
Campaign coordination

Aggregated mandates show up at named institutions on named questions — never claiming to speak for anyone who hasn't signed.

  • EU Transparency Register (days)
  • PACE Platform for Russian Democratic Forces (Res. 2621/2025)
  • ECtHR Rule 44 §3 third-party intervention (~17,000 legacy Russian cases)
  • UK APPG written/oral evidence; Bundestag Petitionsausschuss (50,000-signature trigger)
  • OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference; UN Special Procedures
cSPA.schema.json — civic special power of attorney
// every mandate is a narrowly-scoped, revocable, time-limited authorisation
{
  "mandate_id": "uuid",
  "principal_id": "sumsub_verified",
  "representative_id": "quorum_uk_clg",
  "jurisdictions": ["UK", "DE", "EU"],
  "scope": ["ADVOCACY_LETTERS", "PETITIONS", "ECTHR_AMICUS"],
  "excluded": ["ELECTORAL_PROXY", "FINANCIAL_AUTHORITY", "SUB_DELEGATION"],
  "signature_level": "QES",  // eIDAS Art. 25(2)
  "signed_at": "2026-05-15T10:00:00Z",
  "expires_at": "2028-05-15T10:00:00Z",  // 24 months, non-durable
  "revocation": { "method": "portal_self_revoke", "latency_ms": 200 },
  "evidence": { "container": "PAdES-LTV", "anchor": "EBSI" },
  "sanctions_screen": { "provider": "ComplyAdvantage", "status": "clear" },
  "status": "active"
}
// presentation to verifier = zero-knowledge proof of count, never of names
03 / Boundaries

What Quorum is — and is not.

The strongest design choice is what we refuse to do. Most diaspora vehicles fail because they overclaim. Quorum is structurally narrow — and that is exactly why it can succeed.

It is

  • A thin civic-mandate utility, plug-in for any existing initiative
  • Built from existing, production-grade online services
  • Auditable, sanctions-screened, and revocable in one click
  • A campaign-coordination tool, in Volkov's spirit
  • Faction-neutral infrastructure

It is not

  • A political party (foreigners cannot lawfully fund parties anywhere relevant)
  • A government-in-exile (FARA risk; Russian extremist designation contagion)
  • A vote (cSPA explicitly excludes electoral proxy)
  • A single leader's brand
  • A futurist liquid-democracy / ZK-biometric demo
04 / Roadmap

A six-month operational to-do list.

No mood-board futures. Specific filings, specific institutions, specific online services, specific dates.

Days 1–30
Foundation
  • Incorporate UK CLG (Companies House)
  • Register on EU Transparency Register
  • UK FIRS counsel checkpoint
  • Open business banking (Tide / Wise)
  • Pick stack: Sumsub, Namirial, ComplyAdvantage
  • Draft v1 legal pack (six docs)
Days 31–90
Pilot
  • Recruit first 100 principals (Yashin, AWC, Volkov circles)
  • First aggregated PACE Platform submission
  • UK APPG written evidence
  • ECtHR Rule 44 §3 intervention
  • First transparency bulletin
Days 91–180
Scale
  • Open German e.V. (Berlin)
  • Scale to 1,000 active mandates
  • Bundestag Petitionsausschuss filing
  • EP intergroup speaker slot
  • KPI dashboard live
  • US 501(c)(4) go/no-go decision
Months 6–12
Standing
  • Council of Europe Conference of INGOs application
  • 5,000 active mandates
  • EUDI Wallet integration (Dec 2026)
  • National chapters in 5+ host states
  • First annual independent audit
05 / The stack

Boring. Working. Available today.

Each row is something you can sign up for this afternoon. The point of Quorum is the discipline of stitching them together legally — not the technology itself.

Layer Function Vendor Why
01 Incorporation Companies House UK CLG online incorporation, ~£12, ~24h
02 Banking Tide / Wise Business Accept CLGs without UK-citizenship director requirements
03 KYC + passport Sumsub Cyprus-HQ; ICAO 9303 NFC; admits Russian passports
04 Sanctions screening ComplyAdvantage Real-time UK OFSI / EU 269/2014 / OFAC SDN
05 QES (high-stakes) Namirial / InfoCert eIDAS Art. 25(2): same effect as wet signature, EU-wide
06 AES (routine) DocuSign / Yousign Audit trail, identity verification, SES/AES tiering
07 Cloud (primary) Hetzner (Frankfurt) EU-resident processing for GDPR Art. 9 special-category data
08 Cloud (secondary) Infomaniak (CH) FADP adequacy; outside US Schrems-II exposure
09 CRM CiviCRM / HubSpot Free Open source nonprofit CRM, or HubSpot free tier for ops
10 Document storage Tresorit / Proton Drive Swiss zero-knowledge storage
11 Lobby register EU Transparency Register Free; days; opens EP committees & DG meetings
12 Future identity EUDI Wallet (Dec 2026) Native EU digital identity for residents holding permits
06 / FAQ

Frequently asked.

Why not just join Better Call Yashin?
Different layers. Yashin's reception is a service desk — case-by-case help with affidavits, complaints, advice. Quorum is an authorisation registry. They are complementary: Quorum can issue cSPAs that the Yashin team uses in court filings as documented authority.
Why not register a political party?
Foreigners cannot lawfully fund political parties in the UK (PPERA s.54), Germany (PartG §25, single donations capped at €1,000 with criminal penalties), France (Loi 88-227), or the US (52 USC §30121, strict liability). The financial rail is closed. Civic infrastructure is not.
Why not call it a government-in-exile?
Three reasons. (1) US FARA exposure — characterising the structure as acting under direction of any "foreign principal" triggers registration. (2) It accelerates Russian "extremist" / "terrorist" designations with cascade donor liability — see FBK 27 Nov 2025. (3) Recognition without domestic power decays in 2–3 years (Guaidó, dissolved Dec 2022, 72–29).
Will a parliamentary committee actually accept a cSPA?
That is the bet. The first one to accept it sets the precedent. The European Parliament's PETI committee and the OSCE/ODIHR human-rights track are the right pilots; PACE Platform 2621/2025 is the medium-term anchor. The cSPA is built from instruments these institutions already understand: eIDAS-qualified electronic signatures and ordinary special powers of attorney.
What about FSB infiltration and risks to families back home?
The Melnikava March 2025 case shows the threat is operational, not theoretical. Quorum mitigates: pseudonymisation by default; only the recipient's auditor sees raw identity; selective-disclosure presentations show counts, never names; optional anonymous-credential mode (BBS+/AnonCreds) lets a principal prove 'verified Russian emigrant' without revealing identity; air-gapped HSM holds registry signing keys; no transfer to Russia under any circumstance.
Is this only for Russians?
The first version, yes — because that is where the founder energy and the institutional opening (PACE 2621/2025) are. The architecture is jurisdiction-agnostic and could later host Belarusian, Iranian, or other diaspora variants under a federation agreement.
What does success look like in 12 months?
5,000 active mandates; one accepted PACE submission with verified mandate count on the cover; one ECtHR Rule 44 §3 intervention granted; one Bundestag committee invitation; one APPG written-evidence published; UK FIRS / EU Transparency Register / German Lobbyregister all clean.

The window is two to three years.

The post-2022 wave of Russian emigration has perhaps 24–36 months of continued Western political attention before a frozen conflict, an election cycle, or a quiet diplomatic settlement reduces its salience. The infrastructure to convert that attention into standing must be built now.

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