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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded Russian NGOs, ended its operations in Russia from Monday. In September, Russia said that USAID, which provided financing for pro-democracy and human rights groups that irked the Kremlin, would have to close its offices in the country by 1 October. President Putin said the mission was meddling in Russian internal affairs. Senior Russian officials portrayed some of USAID programs… such as those funding election monitoring and human rights groups critical of the Kremlin… as attempts by a foreign nation to undermine Russian sovereignty. Human rights activists cried foul over the closure of USAID’s Russian offices, saying small regional NGOs would suffer most.
USAID, which operates in more than 100 countries, was active in Russia over the past two decades. Its array of social programs have targeted issues such as at-risk youth and pressing public health issues like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. However, the agency also funded civic organisations that rankled Russian officials, including the election watchdog Golos, whose monitors catalogued violations in local and federal elections in recent years. The USA repeatedly denied that it intended these programmes to interfere in Russian domestic affairs. The ending of USAID operations in Russia doesn’t mean an end to the much-heralded reset between Washington and Moscow, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last month.
Since Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president, the lower house of parliament, the RF Gosduma, gave the green light to several laws that Russian civil society activists claim are intended to dampen dissent and provoke fear among citizens who’ve become increasingly active in recent months. These laws range from a substantial hike in protest-related fines to the law requiring domestic NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they receive foreign funding and engage in political activity.
1 October 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20121001/176325056.html
Editor’s Note:
Here’s turnaround as fair play… let’s send Russian and Belarusian observers to Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi to be official observers of the election and give them the right to make legal complaints against all the Good Ol’ Boys they catch stuffin’ ballot boxes. They’d catch more than one… “Landslide Lyndon” wasn’t an isolated phenom, y’ know.
Boss Hogg lives… and he’s accusing VVP of being corrupt. I’ll retire to Bedlam with Mr Scrooge…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
USAID Ends Operations in Russia
Tags: Alabama, diplomacy, diplomatic relations, Florida, foreign aid, Good Ol’ Boys, Government of Russia, Landslide Lyndon, Mississippi, NGO, Non-governmental organization, political commentary, politics, poster, Russia, Russian, Texas, United States, United States Agency for International Development, United States Department of State, US Department of State, USA, USAID, Victoria Nuland, Vladimir Putin
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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded Russian NGOs, ended its operations in Russia from Monday. In September, Russia said that USAID, which provided financing for pro-democracy and human rights groups that irked the Kremlin, would have to close its offices in the country by 1 October. President Putin said the mission was meddling in Russian internal affairs. Senior Russian officials portrayed some of USAID programs… such as those funding election monitoring and human rights groups critical of the Kremlin… as attempts by a foreign nation to undermine Russian sovereignty. Human rights activists cried foul over the closure of USAID’s Russian offices, saying small regional NGOs would suffer most.
USAID, which operates in more than 100 countries, was active in Russia over the past two decades. Its array of social programs have targeted issues such as at-risk youth and pressing public health issues like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. However, the agency also funded civic organisations that rankled Russian officials, including the election watchdog Golos, whose monitors catalogued violations in local and federal elections in recent years. The USA repeatedly denied that it intended these programmes to interfere in Russian domestic affairs. The ending of USAID operations in Russia doesn’t mean an end to the much-heralded reset between Washington and Moscow, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last month.
Since Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president, the lower house of parliament, the RF Gosduma, gave the green light to several laws that Russian civil society activists claim are intended to dampen dissent and provoke fear among citizens who’ve become increasingly active in recent months. These laws range from a substantial hike in protest-related fines to the law requiring domestic NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they receive foreign funding and engage in political activity.
1 October 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20121001/176325056.html
Editor’s Note:
Here’s turnaround as fair play… let’s send Russian and Belarusian observers to Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi to be official observers of the election and give them the right to make legal complaints against all the Good Ol’ Boys they catch stuffin’ ballot boxes. They’d catch more than one… “Landslide Lyndon” wasn’t an isolated phenom, y’ know.
Boss Hogg lives… and he’s accusing VVP of being corrupt. I’ll retire to Bedlam with Mr Scrooge…
BMD