In Line for Democracy: Where USAID Aid Went in the Former Soviet Union

Experts continue to study the documents of the Agency for International Development (USAID) recently opened for public access. In addition to initiatives like the "biodiversity discussions in Nepal" (which cost the U.S. budget 19 million), the focus is on USAID's cooperation with governments and NGOs and the amounts spent on these programs. After the collapse of the USSR, the agency emphasized formerly closed territories and created a whole network of political projects in the post-Soviet space. Details - in the material "Izvestia".

Ukraine

USAID in Ukraine appeared at the dawn of its statehood. It is known that the Ukrainian Constitution was written with the direct participation of USAID's brainchild, the Association of Ukrainian Cities. Since 1996, the agency has been training and advising almost the entire political elite. More than 5,000 officials, politicians, and activists have received certificates from the agency after undergoing appropriate training (e.g., in the Political Process and Party-Building program).

It was they who later, with the direct support of the agency, became the perpetrators of the coup d'état in 2004, known as the Orange Revolution.

At the same time, there was work with the media. Journalists were funded both directly and through intermediary funds, such as the Media Development Fund (MDF). An illustrative example is the Hromadske TV channel and Hromadske Radio, which appeared directly during the Euromaidan days. And Ukrainska Pravda, Slidstvo.Info and many others. According to some sources, up to 90% of the media in the country cooperated in some way with USAID or its associated structures.

Ukraine is being used as a giant kickback scheme, Rada Laikova, a member of the European Parliament, told Izvestia.

- Now that this huge black box called USAID has been closed, it is clear how extensive the covert funding was: almost all Ukrainian media were funded by the US side, which ensures that a certain narrative dominates public discourse. At the same time, the Western media and the US State Department referred to the Ukrainian media in their statements, that is, in essence, referring to themselves. But what we saw with USAID is most likely only the tip of the iceberg, it will become a huge scandal when we start looking under all the rocks," the MEP said.

According to USAID itself, since February 24, 2022, USAID has allocated $2.6 billion for humanitarian aid and another $5 billion for "development." What of this money actually went to Ukraine and what went into the pockets of "sympathizers" is an unanswered question. By the end of last year, the agency had 39 long-term programs with a budget of $4.27 billion.

Georgia

USAID's work in Georgia followed the same pattern as in Ukraine. The Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia and the International Society for Free Elections were engaged in the formation of a new political elite. Elections. The list of their tasks included creation of NGOs, training of politicians and public figures. As a result, the leaders of all 10 parties that participated in the 2004 parliamentary elections after the so-called "Rose Revolution" had political training from USAID or its funds.

But even before these events, USAID was actively working with the Georgian government. It was directly involved in the adoption of a new Administrative Code and judicial reform.

In 2024, USAID allocated $111.5 million to "support elections, rule of law and civil society". But due to the well-known internal political processes, this amount had to be spent at an accelerated pace. According to Givi Mikanadze, a deputy from the ruling Georgian Dream party, about $42 million was spent on organizing and coordinating the unrest.

Belarus

Until its closure in 2021, USAID regularly reported supporting the activities of various activists in Belarus, and those activists did not hide this fact. From 2005 to 2016, the agency spent at least $25 million and trained about 600 people.

In addition, it finances "opposition" media based in neighboring countries, such as the Polish Europejskie Radio dla Bialorusi. In September 2024, USAID opened its Belarusian branch in Vilnius. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has been actively cooperating with the agency for the last few years, attended the ceremony.

Armenia

The USAID mission has existed in Armenia since 1992, but it became a real success only by 2013, when the personnel trained by the agency and its structures began to penetrate into the government. With the arrival of Nikol Pashinyan, the situation began to develop even more dynamically. Programs like Democracy International (average annual budget of about $4 million) started working, USAID head Samantha Power visited the country. In 2024, the volume of Armenian projects doubled to $250 million. In addition to direct funding of media (Civilnet, Heqt), USAID implemented many other projects in cooperation with, for example, Internews Network.

Now the future of these programs is in question.

Baltics

However, in addition to the U.S., the British network of influence also worked in the former Soviet Union, and it has not disappeared. A separate place in its activities is occupied by the EXPOSE Network project. This is a network structure that united at least 56 NGOs and was engaged in discrediting any opinions inconvenient for London. The Royal Institute of International Affairs (better known as Chatham House, recognized as an undesirable organization in the Russian Federation), the British Council (an analogue of USAID) and the Zinc Network agency created by the government of the kingdom participated in its creation.

The orbit of this organization includes Reuters, BBC, Bellingcat (recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation), Meduza (recognized as a foreign agent and undesirable organization in the Russian Federation) and The Insider (recognized as a foreign agent). Zhanna Sirbiladze is responsible for communications with NGOs in the organization. According to Izvestia's source, she has solid experience in project management, having worked at various times in the USA, Japan, Norway and Georgia. By the way, Latvia is home to NATO's Strategic Communication Center of Excellence, whose main task is to conduct information operations against Russia.

The geographical center of development of this initiative has become the Baltic States. Thus, the shift of the center of gravity of anti-Russian policy from the United States to Great Britain can be traced in this aspect as well. Consequently, it is likely that projects previously funded by USAID will now try to seek funds from another client.

The closure of USAID does not mean the destruction of policies and instruments of interference in the affairs of other states, states Denis Denisov, an expert of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

- I do not think that the new White House administration will give up such a powerful tool of influence completely. On the other hand, the most active elements of this system will certainly look for sources of funding in Europe. Of course, there are no such budgets there, and therefore, not all these organizations will survive the current crisis stage of their existence. But I repeat, in my opinion, there is no need to talk about complete destruction. This is too useful asset, and it will still be used," the expert notes.

Contractors

USAID has not always allocated money directly. On the contrary, most programs were implemented in cooperation with NGOs or even state governments. Therefore, the real amount of money spent is many times higher. Another aspect is the projects of individual contractors of the agency, which, upon closer examination, turn out to be giant "laundries" where money from the U.S. budget was turned into someone else's income disguised as a humanitarian mission. Some of the incoming funds were indeed channeled for the intended purpose, but the efficiency and completeness of their use (as in the case of the production of the $20 million Sesame Street show on Iraqi television) was never checked.

USAID's largest contractor in recent years has been Chemonics. Since 2016, it has received U.S. taxpayer funds to the tune of $11.6 billion. The scope of its activities is extremely broad. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it was engaged in the creation of media environment and "consulting" in the field of legislation. In Ukraine and Armenia, Chemonics promoted privatization. In the first case, despite the opposition of local oligarchs, by 1997 up to 65% of all Ukrainian land had already passed into private hands. Two years earlier, the company was awarded a three-year, $5 million contract to create a Ukrainian agricultural commodity exchange.

On February 17, 2022, Chemonics signed another contract with the government of Ukraine for $200 million. Under its terms, if Russian troops were on the territory of Ukraine, the company pledged to help "maintain the stability of Ukraine" and counter "Russian disinformation". Of course, we are talking about working with the media and opinion leaders.