Russia Lauds Shuttering of USAID
Making Russia happy again.
Reports the Moscow Times: Russia Welcomes USAID Cuts, Calls Agency ‘Machine for Interfering’.
Russia on Thursday welcomed the new U.S. administration’s decision to shutter USAID as an independent agency, calling the humanitarian body a “machine for interfering” in global affairs.
[…]
“The only thing we take a certain satisfaction from is that everything we said turned out to be true,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a weekly briefing, referring to Moscow’s longstanding criticism of the agency.
“It is anything but an aid, development and assistance agency,” said Zakharova.
So, yay? An era of good feelings between Trump, Musk, and the Kremlin! That’s how you just know that this is a stellar move in the interest of the United States.
“It is a machine for interfering in internal affairs, it is a mechanism for changing regimes, political order, state structure.”
The aid arm of U.S. foreign policy, USAID funded health and emergency programs as well as democracy promotion initiatives in around 120 countries, including the world’s poorest regions.
It was seen as a vital source of soft power for the United States in its struggle for influence with rivals including China, but has long been lambasted by authoritarian leaders.
Musk has called USAID “a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.” Trump said last week it was being run by a “bunch of radical lunatics.”
I mean, sure, all of this is contradictory and nonsensical, but that’s the best way to make decisions!
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Putin’s giving his dog a treat by praising his actions publicly. “Good dog, Trumpy, good boy! Here’s a biscuit for you!”
@MBunge:
Whatever that means.
The deliberate creation of a soft-power vacuum our primary geopolitical adversaries will rush to fill will stand as one of the stupidest and most damaging self-owns in history. It would be unbelievable, were it not happening right before our eyes.
@Mikey: Someone who knows the art of the deal would’ve gotten Russian and China to pay us for stopping aid. We’re leaving money on the table!
Do you think Vlad grabs President Doughboy by the combover when he’s on his knees and sucking Vlad’s [eggplant emoji]?
All: please ignore MBunge. He has been disinvited to the party.
I understand that if a Democrat so much as clears their throat awkwardly in an off-the-cuff statement it’s a scandal, but at what point do these things start to backfire on Republicans (AKA the 100% teflon party)?
@Mikey: THIS.
It is one of the dumbest, if not THE dumbest, things I can think of doing if you actually are hoping for successful foreign policy.
On the other hand, if what they are attempting to do is FUBAR the US’s foreign policy for decades, then well, mission accomplished I guess.
@Jen: Between this and Rubio pulling out of the G20, it definitely looks like the administration’s intent is to cede all our soft power to Russia and China.
I think Trump can’t conceive of soft power. He’s a bully, and thinks the only true strength is in beating up those he perceives as lesser-than.
@Steven L. Taylor: I noticed M yesterday and noted on my list of OTB commenters that he’s active again. Now you’re making me go update my list already. Good move.
As a preface (because this is OTB), I want to say upfront that I support USAID and its mission, even though I think it’s needed a lot more oversight over the past couple of decades (LOTS of $$$ pissed away in Afghanistan, for example).
That said, Putin is right in the sense that USAID is one of the key agencies that actively engages in democracy-promotion efforts and related endeavors like supporting independent and Western-friendly media. For Putin (and many other leaders around the world), this is direct interference in their internal affairs. Putin famously (at least for those of us who follow Russia closely), blamed the US for supporting the groups who organized and participated in the 2011-2013 protests in Russia as well as the Euromaiden protests in Ukraine. And, indeed, we were not exactly secretive at picking sides in both those cases, something which Putin has long hated the US for (and, in particular, Hilary Clinton, who was SECSTATE at the time and loved poking him in the eye (see also, Libya)).
From the Russian perspective (and that of many other governments), it’s total hypocrisy for the US to complain about foreign election interference in US elections when the US has pretty transparent and open influence policies and operations working in other countries that are specifically designed to influence their internal politics. So he’s not wrong about what has been going on. We are hypocritical about this, even though the goals of our efforts are (in my opinion) good and usually justified while Russia’s are not.
I mainly bring this up to point out that other countries have interests that are different from ours, and they will pursue and defend them. Too often I see attitudes that boil down to the assumption that our shit doesn’t stink and that there is no reason why anyone in another country could object to our direct engagement and influence in their politics while simultaneously expressing outrage over every real and perceived foreign influence in our internal affairs.
The fact is that no country likes it when foreign governments interfere in their internal affairs. Many do not want or desire US interference, no matter how much we may think our actions are justified. Combined with, for example, more active US historical involvement in the internal affairs of other countries, particularly in our hemisphere, much of the world takes a cynical view of our democracy-promotion efforts and sees them as entirely self-serving and hegemonic. This isn’t just Putin. I think the US ought to live our values, but we also need to be cognizant of the realities of how other countries perceive what we do, and account for that in how we operationalize our policy goals.
@Argon: How do you know that nobody got paid? Not everyone in that chain of command is as dumb as Trump and Musk.
@Andy:
It’s not widespread, but Abe Lincoln is well thought of in Mexico, because he got involved on one side of the civil war raging at the time between the government of Emperor Maximilian I and the deposed president Juarez.
Bush the younger at the nadir he achieved near the end of his second term, was very warmly welcomed in Africa, because he meddled in making drugs to combat AIDS available in the region.
Yes, few countries are nice to others out sheer good will. What I’ll say about America is they tend to be open about it when it comes to distributing aid or promoting certain principles. The USSR used to be that way, too. Russia hides its involvement and makes it seem like internal dissent and division. That’s worlds apart. It is not “both sides do it.”
@Andy and Kathy: Upvotes to you both.
@Andy:
The Russian complaints about US involvement in the EuroMaidan are more a matter of Russian whingeing and propaganda than reality.
The US has scant capacity to mobilise massive numbers of Ukrainians to protest, at considerable personal risk, in favour of an economic and political association with the EU.
Especially when Russia was pretty obviously trying to coerce the Ukrainian government of Yunukovych into breaking repeated assurances regarding the EU deal.
Open advocacy of democracy and human rights is in a rather different category to blatant economic coercion and FSB-style “special operations”.
USAID etc is not the same as the CIA coup-mongering antics of the Cold War period.
Ukraine USAID aid cut off.
Of course Putin likes it.
Meanwhile the shuttering of USAID seems to have had at least one tragic consequence, and doubtless will have many more.
Burmese refugee dies after discharge from shut US-funded clinic
I hope the thrill of power was worth it, Elon.
@Andy:
It’s no big secret USAID tries to promote American values and burnish America’s image. But countries are not forced to take medicine and food paid from the US, either. They can instead seek aid from a selfless power, if they can find one.
The transparency and openness you mention compared with Putin and his apologists denying secretive Russian election interference indicates that they know the intent is not quite analogous.
Putin ought to label his attempts to promote white supremacy, depress black voter turnout, and sow discord and division as RussiaAID — and make this agency’s operations clear and visible. The doors to USAID clinics are open. Let Russia throw open the doors to the troll farms, if Putin believes it’s similarly defensible.
Yes, every individual and institution should reflect on critique. So US citizens should definitely reflect on the reasons behind our negative perceptions, not just globally but domestically (I’m reminded of many going into a defensive crouch when the US is called a racist nation).
But Russia should also reflect on why they feel compelled to hide their interference. Just like they might consider that their neighbors keep joining defensive alliances like NATO due to Russia’s 500-year history of constantly attacking its neighbors.
@Andy: BTW, I agree with your basic point. I am not all surprised that Putin is happy USAID is getting dismantled.
The point is, to be clear, that the Trump administration is acting in a way that is in the interest of Russia and like countries by this attack on USAID and, therefore, demonstrates that it isn’t a good idea.
@JohnSF:
Let me co-sign this as well.