As we saw in chapter 4, the UN Decade for Women (1976–85) allowed for expanded contacts with the West, and its echoes even played a small part in changing the political opportunity structure for Russian women with feminist viewpoints. This is only one aspect of the larger role played by the West, and by international organizations, in the Russian women's movement. New contacts with foreign women and their organizations, access to Western feminist literature, the opportunity to travel to the West, the availability of Western funding for Russian women's organizations (in the 1990s), a plethora of Western-sponsored training sessions and seminars for women, international conferences on women's issues, and the growing knowledge of international laws and standards regarding discrimination against women – all exerted influence on the development and dynamics of the Russian women's movement. Perhaps most importantly, in its struggle to frame issues of discrimination, the Russian women's movement has adopted the language of international documents, such as International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN resolutions, and has succeeded to some degree in framing women's issues in Russia as international issues, which grants the women's groups and their demands a certain amount of leverage in their interactions with the Russian government.