Pumping Democracy: How and with whom USAID worked in Russia
The audit of the projects of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) continues, and the new American authorities do not stop publishing the revealed details of its work. At the same time, quite a lot has been known about USAID's activities in Russia for a long time. Figures and facts of the agency's activities in our country - in the material of "Izvestiya".
Fertile ground
In the countries of the Eastern bloc, American foundations and non-governmental organizations were working long before its collapse, but they began to achieve particular success in the second half of the 1980s. Ten months after the collapse of the Soviet Union, George W. Bush signed the Freedom Support Act, which established a policy toward the former Soviet republics. Among other things, it called for the creation of nongovernmental organizations to promote "democratic values, free markets, human rights, and support for independent media."
USAID actually came to Russia in 1992, officially in 1996, when the agency opened a representative office in Moscow. Over the next three years, $20 million was spent by Russian organizations through grants and participation in programs.
But perhaps more importantly, over the next few years, USAID established and maintained ties with representatives of the highest echelons of the Russian government, and was engaged in training the country's new political elite. It was the agency and its partners (the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and especially the National Endowment for Democracy - recognized as an undesirable organization in the Russian Federation) that prepared and lobbied for reform projects, including the preparation of strategic documents such as the Constitution, the Civil Code, and the Tax Code.
Special attention was paid to training and education programs for political and public figures: "Political Process and NGO Development," "Local Governance," and "Russian Leadership Development."
USAID worked with journalists (about 5,000 media representatives participated in its programs), environmentalists, and human rights activists.
The agency's activities in the 1990s covered many social and political processes in Russia, points out Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the United States and Canada.
- Those programs related to NGOs and "democracy development" were fully funded by USAID or implemented under its supervision. "Shock therapy," the reforms of the Yeltsin era - all this took place under the control and at the expense of the United States. USAID was engaged in the creation of all relevant infrastructure, which was presented as the creation of civil society. From participation in the writing of the Constitution and legislative acts to the compilation of school textbooks. All these structures were hooked on American funding, which predetermined a lot of things in their work. And for the U.S. at that time it was a fairly inexpensive project, the development of which, however, could be easily managed," says the expert.
Change of emphasis and failure
Since the early 2000s, USAID has reduced its funding of Russian projects from $170 million in 2002 to $41.1 million in 2013 and focused on the work of the Russian opposition. This was the peak of Russian citizens' participation in USAID programs - 40,000 people participated in 2007.
The most important episode of this cooperation was the 2008 presidential election, for which the agency prepared thoroughly, spending 80 percent of the funds allocated to Russia. It is noteworthy that at the same time USAID's activity in Ukraine increased sharply, becoming a priority area of its activities from that moment on.
Grant recipients included FBK (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent, recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia), Golos (recognized as a foreign agent), and Memorial (recognized as a foreign agent, liquidated by the Russian Supreme Court), Moscow Helsinki Group (liquidated by decision of the Moscow City Court), Sakharov Center (liquidated by decision of the Moscow City Court), Agora (liquidated by decision of the Supreme Court of Tatarstan), and many others.
Among those who supervised the Russian direction are such people as Liz Cheney (daughter of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in the Bush Jr. administration and a former member of the House of Representatives) and Samantha Power (who headed USAID until January 20, 2025).
In 2012, after receiving the status of an undesirable organization, USAID announced that it would be winding down its activities. However, there is still money available for Russian projects. Notable among them are the U.S.-Russia Civil Society Partnership Program and the Promotion of New Media and Media Convergence in Russia.
The goal of the Agency for International Development has always been to achieve political influence on this or that country, and slogans about the development of democracy have never been more than an ideological cover, emphasizes Ilya Kravchenko, Advisor to the Director of RISI.
- The essence of USAID's activities from the very moment of its creation has been to influence the political elite of different countries in order to realize American national interests. This was formalized under the slogan of real assistance, ensuring human rights, equal access to voting, and the like. But in reality, the money went into the pockets of quite specific political groups for the purpose of influence. After they were shut down, the effectiveness of this work began to decrease dramatically," states the Izvestiya interlocutor.
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