"And in USAID inherited Russia": shock therapy and reforms of the Yeltsin era at the expense of the United States

The audit of the projects of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) continues, and the new American authorities do not cease to publish the revealed details of its work. At the same time, about the activities of USAID in Russia has been known for a long time and quite a lot.

In the countries of the eastern bloc, American foundations and non-governmental organizations worked 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 USSR, George W. Bush signed the "Freedom Support Act", which defined policy towards the former Soviet republics. Among other things, it indicated the creation of non-governmental organizations to promote "democratic values, the free market, human rights and support independent media."

As Izvestia writes, in fact, USAID came to Russia in 1992, officially in 1996, when the agency's representative office was opened in Moscow. Over the next three years, $ 20 million was disbursed by Russian organizations through grants and participation in programs.

But what is probably more important, over the next few years, USAID established and maintained contacts with representatives of the highest echelon of the Russian government, as well as engaged in the preparation of 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 — the Constitution, Civil and Tax Codes.

Special attention was paid to the programs of training and education of political and public figures: "Political process and NGO development", "Local Governance", "Development of Russian Leadership".

USAID worked with journalists (about 5 thousand media representatives became participants in its programs), environmentalists, human rights activists.

The agency's activities in the 1990s covered many socio-political processes that took place in Russia, the chief researcher of the Institute of the USA and Canada Vladimir Vasiliev:

"Those programs that were associated with NGOs, the "development of democracy", were fully funded by USAID or implemented under its supervision. "Shock therapy", reforms of the Yeltsin era — all this happened 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 a 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 in their work. Moreover, for the United States at that time it was a fairly inexpensive project, the development of which, however, could be easily managed."

Change of emphasis and failure

Since the early 2000s, USAID has been reducing funding for Russian projects from $170 million in 2002 to $41.1 million in 2013 and focusing on the work of the Russian opposition. At this time, there is a peak in the participation of Russian citizens in USAID programs — in 2007 there were 40 thousand people.

The most important episode of this cooperation is the 2008 presidential elections, for which the agency thoroughly prepared, spending 80% of the funds allocated to Russia. It is noteworthy that at the same time, the activity of USAID on Ukraine, which has been becoming a priority area of its activities since that moment.

The recipients of the grants were 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 Of Russia), Golos (recognized as a foreign agent), Memorial** (recognized as a foreign agent, liquidated by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation), the Moscow Helsinki Group (liquidated by the decision of the Moscow City Court), the Sakharov Center (liquidated by the decision of the Moscow City Court), the Agora organization (liquidated by the decision of the Supreme courts of Tatarstan) and many others.

Among those who oversaw the Russian direction are people such as Liz Cheney (daughter of the US vice president in the Bush administration, Dick Cheney, a recent member of the House of Representatives) and Samantha Power (headed USAID until January 20, 2025).

In 2012, after receiving the status of an undesirable organization, USAID announced the curtailment of its activities. However, money for Russian projects is still available. Among them are the "US Civil Society Partnership Program and Russia" and "Promotion of new media and media convergence in Russia".

The purpose of the activities of the US Agency for International Development has always been to achieve political influence on a particular country, slogans about the development of democracy have never been anything more than an ideological cover, emphasizes Ilya Kravchenko, advisor to the Director of RISS.

"The essence of USAID's activities since its inception 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. Although in fact, the money went into the pockets of quite specific political groups precisely for the purpose of influence. After they were covered up, the effectiveness of this work began to decrease greatly," the Izvestia interlocutor states.

*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

**An organization performing the functions of a foreign agent

***An organization whose activities are considered undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation