Russia Demands U.S. End Support of Democracy Groups
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ELLEN BARRY
Ivan Sekretarev/Associated Press
Golos, Russia’s only independent election monitoring
group, is among the organizations that expect to lose financing from the
United States Agency for International Development next month.
The Kremlin views American financial support for a wide range of civil
society programs as thinly veiled meddling in the country’s internal
affairs.
Golos,
Russia’s only independent election monitoring group, is among the
organizations that expect to lose financing from the United States
Agency for International Development next month.
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ELLEN BARRY
Published: September 18, 2012
MOSCOW — Russia
has ordered the United States to end its financial support for a wide
range of pro-democracy, public health and other civil society programs
here, in an aggressive step by the Kremlin to halt what it views as
American meddling in its internal affairs.
The Kremlin’s provocative decision to end two decades of work in post-Soviet Russia by the United States Agency for International Development
— with little warning ahead of an Oct. 1 deadline — was announced on
Tuesday by the State Department in Washington. The move stands to cut
off aid that currently totals about $50 million a year, a relatively
small sum but a potentially devastating blow for groups that came to
rely on foreign money as domestic controls over politics tightened.
American officials, who were informed of the decision earlier this
month, quickly pledged to maneuver around the Kremlin. The Obama
administration last October proposed the creation of a new $50 million
fund— essentially an endowment for a private foundation established
under Russian law — for Russian civil society groups, and one senior
administration official said work on that project would speed up.
The Kremlin has taken a number of actions in recent months to bring
pressure on nongovernmental groups and clamp down on political dissent,
including a new law requiring any organization receiving aid from abroad
to register with the justice manager as “acting as a foreign agent.”
Russia also increased the penalties for libel and slander — a step that
seemed intended to intimidate critics of government officials.
Russia is not alone in its resentment of United States-led democracy
building efforts. Those have become a sore point for a number of
countries in recent years, including allies like Egypt and Pakistan,
which have objected to outside groups telling them how to run their
affairs. The aid agency’s cold war history of providing a front for
American intelligence agencies is still fresh in the memories of foreign
officials, many of whom have never fully dropped their suspicions.
The abruptness of Russia’s announcements represents a sour new turn in
relations between the countries, which have been touch-and-go since Mr.
Putin returned to the presidency in May. While Mr. Putin has rebuffed
overtures from President Obama for international action on Syria, he has
also praised him as “a very honest man” who could possibly conclude a missile defense deal in coming years.
Mr. Putin also undoubtedly would prefer to deal with the devil he knows
rather than the one he does not — the Republican presidential nominee,
Mitt Romney, whom Mr. Putin has criticized for characterizing Russia as
America’s greatest geopolitical foe.
Reaction was swift in Washington to what was widely perceived as an
affront, with Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, urging the
White House to condemn the Kremlin. “The Russian government’s decision
to end all U.S.A.I.D. activities in the country is an insult to the
United States and a finger in the eye of the Obama administration, which
has consistently trumpeted the alleged success of its so-called reset
policy toward Moscow,” Mr. McCain said in a statement.
But the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, suggested that if
Russia did not want American assistance, the money could be better
spent elsewhere. “It’s their sovereign decision to make,” she said.
“There are many countries around the world who would like to have more
AID funding and help.”
Mr. Putin, facing large-scale dissent at home for the first time, has
said unrest is being stoked by the State Department, working covertly
through nonprofit organizations.
Among the groups supported by the money from Washington is Golos,
Russia’s only independent election monitoring group, which last winter
enlisted thousands of young Russians as poll-station monitors and posted
reports of vote-rigging on its Web site.
Grigory A. Melkonyants, the deputy director of Golos, said it would take
at least a year to find alternate financing to replace the American
grants, if it was even possible.
“They see us as the source of criticism, and they are trying to halt
that source,” Mr. Melkonyants said. “Many people are already scared to
talk about the problems that exist today. The press is already
frightened. Now they are trying to shut up civil organizations.”
The news filtered through Moscow’s human rights circles, already battered by new sanctions on political activities.
“What is the list of other countries that have expelled U.S.A.I.D.?” said Yelena A. Panfilova, the head of the Moscow branch of Transparency International.
“It’s not about money — we can cope somehow — the problem is about this
whole feeling that we have been brought together with Venezuela,
Somalia and Belarus.”
As a practical matter it was unclear how many of the programs could
continue without financing or support staff on the ground. The American
aid agency employs 13 Americans in its Moscow headquarters, as well as a
Russian staff of 60.
Officials said that the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov,
informed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of the decision on
Sept. 8, when they met in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East during the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting.
Formal notice was then sent to Washington, through the American
ambassador, Michael A. McFaul, in a memorandum dated Sept. 11, officials
said.
The American-financed programs played a crucial role in helping Russia
recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union, and included efforts to
build the country’s capital markets and financial system and its
mortgage-lending industry. The United States also supported an array of
health programs, including efforts to combat tuberculosis and the spread
of H.I.V.
But as Russia’s economy was buoyed by oil and gas revenues, the agency
swung more than half of its portfolio to democracy and human rights
programs, among them prominent critics of government policy. Since the
fall of the Soviet Union, the programs have cost American taxpayers $2.7
billion, with about one-third of the yearly funding now going to health
programs.
In recent years, however, Russia has bridled at the foreign aid flowing
across its borders, in part because it views itself as a world power, a
member of the Group of 8, and therefore more appropriately positioned to
dole out assistance than to receive it.
Underscoring this view, Russia said on Tuesday that it was forgiving
nearly all of North Korea’s accumulated foreign debt, which Russian
officials have valued at roughly $11 billion, dating back to the closer
relationship between them during the Soviet era.
The forgiveness step, which has been in the works for many months, would
help clear the way for Russia to make new investments in North Korea — a
development that runs counter to American-led efforts to economically
ostracize the North over its expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Mr. Melkonyants of Golos said he could not understand why American aid
agency’s work rankled the Kremlin so. “Free elections are not an
American goal — that is absurd,” he said. “They are a Russian goal.”
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